Baby shaking game pulled from iTunes App store

We're pretty sure this is supposed to be a prank, but some genius (or geniuses) at Apple actually approved an iPhone game about baby shaking. The game, Baby Shaker, was spotted by applications review website Krapps, and you better believe they complained.

Within a few hours, other websites and various Twitter users were flipping out over this game, and the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome really tore Apple a new one for approving the game and putting it up for sale on the iTunes App store for 99 cents. The game's description on iTunes read:

On a plane, on the bus, in a theatre. Babies are everywhere you don't want them to be! They're always distracting you from preparing for that big presentation at work with their incessant crying. Before Baby Shaker, there was nothing you could do about it. See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!

Wow, sounds like a tasteful game alright. The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, a New York-based prevention group for Shaken Baby Syndrome, has demanded a "personal apology to parents of SBS victims and survivors" from Steve Jobs. They seem to be taking this transgression almost personally.

"Apple, Inc., which notoriously and routinely rejects new apps from developers with a 'rigorous' vetting process, nonetheless apparently allowed this horrible application to be sold through its store," the Foundation said.

Designed by a company called Sikalosoft, the controversial App first popped up on the iTunes Store on Monday, April 21, but wasn't removed until yesterday Wednesday. Sikalosoft has made other iPhone games before and have not been very forthcoming about Baby Shaker, which has been removed from their website as well. Their own description of the game did include the words, "Never, never shake a baby."

Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris confirmed the App's removal but has not commented on how (or why) the game was approved in the first place.


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http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6151830.ece