Apple has removed the controversial Baby Shaker application from its App Store. Now that the dust has settled on the fuss, people are wondering how Apple could have let such a potentially offensive application through its seemingly strict approval process.
Sikalosoft developed Baby Shaker, which features a drawing of a crying baby. The object of the game is to get the baby to stop crying. This is accomplished by shaking the iPhone until red Xes appear over the baby’s eyes. Here’s a description of the game:
“On a plane, on the bus, in a theater. 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.”
Offending Parents of Brain-Damaged Kids
The game’s premise was extremely offensive to groups like the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, an organization dedicated to children suffering from brain injuries. Patrick Donohue, founder of the group, wrote a letter to an Apple executive protesting the Baby Shaker app.
“As the father of a three-year-old who was shaken by her baby nurse when she was only five days old, breaking three ribs, both collarbones and causing a severe brain injury, words cannot describe my reaction,” Donohue wrote. “You have no idea the number of children your actions have put at risk by your careless, thoughtless and reckless behavior!”
How could Apple let an game that could offend so many onto its mobile application platform for the iPhone and iPod touch? Because the people that work at Apple are human beings and prone to make mistakes, said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret.
Apple’s Fine Line
“Apple walks a fine line. If they are too conservative they get criticized for censorship and people say they should let the market…