Virtual violence and the Baby Shaker App
Quick, what's more offensive? South Park, or shaking a baby until it dies?
If you had to think about it, you might have a job waiting for you vetting apps for the Apple store.
Baby advocates weren't happy about the Baby Shaker iPhone App. Credit: boinger@gmail via Flickr.It was an application bound to rattle. Baby Shaker, the $0.99 app that went on sale at the App store Monday, made iPhones emit the sound of a crying baby, while showing a charcoal drawing of a kid. The only way to make the noise stop was to shake the iPhone violently, until red X marks appeared over the baby's eyes.
"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," the app's introduction read.
The app was developed by Sikalosoft, which has one more app available in the App store: a dice mosaic for $0.99.
Now, it doesn't suprise me that some sick mind would come up with something like this. On my wife's phone, we can shake dice. It doesn't take much for a sick mind to take it a step farther.
No, my beef isn't with SickSoftware, or whatever the heck they call themselves. In a free society, some free minds will wallow freely in the sickest forms of entertainment available.
My problem is with Apple, which initially approved the sale of this app.
According to the Associated Press, the company "screens each iPhone application, a process some prospective iPhone application developers have complained can take weeks or months."
It has"rejected apps that let iPhone users throw virtual shoes at President George W. Bush or watch clips from the 'South Park' cartoon."
But this is okay?
Apple did finally pull the app. Here's hoping they improve their app-approval process.
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