Unfortunately, interns aren't going to be the ones to stop this trend. Unpaid interns do benefit from their internships. They mostly accept it as something that

Unfortunately, interns aren't going to be the ones to stop this trend. Unpaid interns do benefit from their internships. They mostly accept it as something that they have to do, and they know that if they refuse to take an unpaid internship, there are thousands of other students who will snap up the opportunity. I don't think this will always be the case. As more people work on things that scale, the importance of quality will become more obvious, and employers will be more motivated to find the best. On the intern side, as it becomes more obvious to people how vulnerable large firms are to disruption by agile startups, the knowledge of how to price, value, and market oneself will become more widespread, and fewer grads will be taken unawares.