‘Baby Shaker’ game is appalling
I have noticed recently that I tend to be offended a lot easier now that I am a parent. Returning to my car on Saturday from a garage sale I overheard a man yelling at his two little girls to get in the car. It wasn’t the words that offended me, but his tone of voice. It was very domineering and very mean. I would have been scared of him! Either way, I knew at that moment that this type of behavior towards someone’s child would have never bothered me before. I remember seeing a stop smoking commercial that brought me to tears. I’m pretty positive this commercial wouldn’t have effected me at all if I wouldn’t have had Annabelle. (You can check to the commercial out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAirUswrNFo) But this week, a new game on the Apple iPhone took the title as most offensive thing to me as a parent. The game requires the user to shake the phone to get the crying baby to stop crying. Once the phone has been shaken vigorously enough, the baby’s eyes get big red X’s over them and the user wins. I just couldn’t believe someone would market something so appalling. Here is a story below from the Associated Press regarding Apple apologizing for the horrific game.
Apple apologizes for ‘Baby Shaker’ iPhone game
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple Inc. is apologizing for allowing a 99-cent iPhone game called”Baby Shaker” that let a player quiet a virtual crying infant by shaking the device. Apple removed the program from the iPhone’s App Store on Wednesday, but critics pressed for an apology Thursday. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said Thursday that the game was “deeply offensive” and said it should not have been approved for sale. “We sincerely apologize for this mistake,” Kerris said in a statement. Apple approves the programs that outside software developers make available in the store. “Baby Shaker” came from a company called Sikalosoft, which has not commented. The game asked players to see how long they could endure a baby’s cries and then shake the phone to stop the wailing.
You can see the AP video regarding the game here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLOCDrmlQwQ
At least apple quickly dealt with it. Its sad there’s a market for this nonsense at all.
I just couldn’t believe it when I first read it. I love Apple and a good majority of it’s products. How they could approve something like that is beyond me. They should have apologized and I am glad they did so quickly too, but I also believe the company that made the game should have apologized a lot sooner than they did.
WOW!! People are not right! My son is a recent victim of Shaken baby and I can’t believe someone out there could even think that would be funny in anyway!!! I guess that just shows what kind of world we live in…. I never heard about this so I think apples appology should have been noted on news shows!! The game company should have to apologize…. People who bought it and did the shaking are just as guilty…..
I could not disagree more. I think this game sounds hilarious. Is someone who plays Grand Theft Auto going to go out and steal cars/shoot people? No, not unless they had planned to do that before they played the game.
A game is just that – a game. Get over it.
Tom B – You definitely have the right to your own opinion, but I have played Grand Theft Auto many times and still disagree. I just don’t think killing a baby or child is funny in any manner.