With an earlier report from independent non-profit organization China Labor Watch (CLW) having revealed that underage interns have been employed by Foxconn, the company has now acknowledged - on the basis of the findings of an internal investigation - that interns as young as 14 years were working in its factories assembling Apple's iPhone 5.

Admitting to employing underage interns, Foxconn said in a recent statement that an internal probe of its working conditions had revealed that some of the interns employed at its Yantai factory in the Shandong Province were below 16 years, which is the legal age of employment in China.

Since the CLW report had already highlighted that the underage interns working at Foxconn factories in China chiefly comprised students who had been sent to Foxconn by schools, and had been put to work by the company without checking their IDs, Foxconn said in its statement that it intends undergoing another internal-inspection round; and will terminate employees aged less than 16 years.

Revealing that the company will conduct a full investigation into the matter, Foxconn said that it will get in touch with the educational institutions to find out how the underage interns had been sent to work at its factories.

Noting that the employment of underage interns marked a violation of the Chinese labor laws as well the company's own policy, Foxconn said: "Immediate steps have been taken to return the interns in question to their educational institutions."