Baby Shaker app gets critics riled up

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.

That the Baby Shaker app made it to the Apple store is surprising: Apple has rejected a number of apps, including one that showed a picture of a knife and emitted screaming sounds, and a game that let people pretend to be drug dealers, according to developer Peter Hosey.

Needless to say, child advocates were not pleased that the shaking baby made it to the App store. They cried foul, putting out a news release today titled "Something Rotten at Apple," encouraging people to call and e-mail Steve Jobs and express their displeasure.

"This horrible iPhone app will undoubtedly be downloaded thousands of times by others in that same young male demographic -- the population group that is already statistically the most likely to shake babies," Jennipher Dickens, communications director for the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, said in the release. " As a result of the child abuse my son endured in the form of shaken-baby syndrome, my son now has irreversible brain damage."

As of Wednesday afternoon, Apple appears to have pulled the app from the store. Clicking on an old link to the app generates a message that the app is "currently not available in the U.S. store."

It's unclear whether the controversy will shake up Apple's chances to reach its 1-billionth download from the App store sometime in the next day or so. The counter's now just above 995 million.

-- Alana Semuels

Comments

[Izabael DaJinn]

What? No one has a sense of humor any more. Are they really trying to tell me that people who use the app will be more likely to shake a baby? Come on.

[Baby Daddy]

Hey Izabael DaJinn - you're an idiot.

[JoyousinSD]

Seriously? How can people be mad about this, but allow other violent games? There have been many times where my dinner has been ruined by parents who bring their screaming kid along. It's extremely rude, and has been accepted as "just a part of life." Well, no more! I can't wait to buy this app so I can take my angst out on something, rather than someone.
"Child advocates?" Really? They are that mad about an iPhone app? Wow, that's pretty sad. Ask those advocates, "Would you rather me yell at you and your family for being so thoughtless at a restaurant, or have me just shake my iPhone?" Which one would cause less embarrassment, and potential physical violence? My point is that an iPhone app should be allowed to be slightly crass, if it helps people cope with others' bad parenting and screaming babies.

[moo]

whoever made this app is an idiot and should be shaken until red X's appear over their eyes

not to say there aren't bigger fish to fry, even in digital land, including all kinds of videogames and websites...but apple really didn't think this one through

"joyous", i'm sure you've never been a parent or around babies. babies scream when they teeth. babies scream when they have colic. ain't a damn thing anyone can do, even the best most loving parent. get a clue or get shaken. i hope more babies ruin your dinner.

[Harold A. Maio]

Our adolescent foolishness, naiveté, often emerges. "Baby Shaker" is but one example. The quick response to it by advocacies illustrates the effectiveness of that agency. The quick response to Mel Gibson's "the" Jews was another.

Our adolescent foolishness, naiveté often reaches very high. Obama's gaffe on the Tonight Show got immediate response, Scalia's "the" mentally ill has not even hit anyone's radar yet. Kudo's to the Special Olympics' representatives, none to mental health advocacies NAMI and MHA across the nation.

Harold A. Maio
khmaio@earthlink.net

[Tara]

You go to www.nevershake.com and tell me why people would get upset about simulating shaking a baby!!!!!!!!!!

[Vince]

Hurray censorship!

[Sheik Yerbouti]

too bad they got rid of it now people will have to shake real babies when they are stressed instead of relieving it with a silly game.

[Sheik Yerbabie]

F--K em if they can't take a joke

[Disgusted]

I cannot believe that there are actually people defending this stupid app! If you had a child that had a mental disability because of shaken baby syndrome, trust me, you'd be singing a different tune. So...what? People who have small children aren't allowed to go out to dinner? I can understand the concept of not taking a small child to the movies...but DINNER...REALLY!?!?! You people have to be some of the most selfish A-holes known to man to get pissed off at a baby because they haven't developed the ability to communicate with words yet. Really, you people should be glad that your own parents didn't have the same rediculous mentality that you do...because you probably wouldn't be here. Baby-shaking isn't something that should be joked about or ever become a game. Personally, I dislike most, if not all, violent video games...but at least the ones that aren't pulled off the market are usually only killing/injuring adults. Babies are the most defenseless beings I know of...and if you can take pleasure in the thought of a baby being shaken, you are a sick person.

[Melody P]

LOL@Vince. Well said!!

[PeterPH]

I can't believe this story. I can see how upsetting this is to so many parents who have lost their kids.. At least parents can find solace that there are still great baby games on iTunes, such as "Pacifier 1". That game is definitely a family game, and definitely a comfort as opposed to this unfortunate terrible game.

[DP Johnson]

Not only is this app sick and distasteful, but also heartbreaking! There is nothing--NOTHING--funny or cute about shaking a poor, helpless, innocent little baby until it dies, even in the cyber world. I hate to hear a baby cry a lot as well...but it's the only way they have of trying to communicate with their parents. The kid will eventually grow out of it--if allowed to. If you don't like the hassle that comes with raising kids...don't HAVE any!

[ECS]

It's just a joke! No one is going to go around shaking every baby in sight because they thought the app was funny. They get mad at this but what about all these violent video games that promote killing hookers and becoming a drug lord???

[lisa smith]

DP.... please take a chill pill.. just like ECS has posted this is ONLY a game.. and people should start banning violent video games if they are going to get all up in arms about this simple game.. there has been evidence that violent video games has been linked to violent acts so why don't they ban those games and quit getting onto harmless games like this. JUST A GAME..

[H]

wow, I cant believe appple would do this, My little sister is a survivor of SBS and i am truely offended by this app. It just takes three seconds of a babys life to be changed forever! Yes kids cry, but you dont shake them to stop, you simpley ask for help, take a time out, More people need to realize that shaking a baby is no joke, it really does damage them and sometimes even kills them. Please dont joke about it, it is a real issue.

[Fred]

There are video games, movies, television shows, and books you can play, watch, or read that involve shooting people in the head, bombing civilians, rape, theft, necromancy, cursing, and graphic sex, among other things. Should all these other games, movies, and books be banned? Perhaps we should gather them all up into a big bonfire and burn them all!

It’s a slippery slope. Who decides what’s acceptable? You? Me? I can guarantee we probably have very different ideas about that. Maybe I despise your religion, or your views on sexuality.

To me this game is in poor taste but is worth a few chuckles in certain circles. Strangely, it also educates people as to what will happen if you do shake a baby: it dies. Many babies are shaken to death by people who don’t know how fragile they are.

Frankly this iron-fisted censorship is one of a great many reasons to jailbreak an Apple device. Here are some of the things you can do after jailbreaking that are a lot more valuable than a stupid baby shaker app:
1. tether your iphone (pdanet)
2. record movies (cycorder)
3. take clearer pictures (clearcam)
4. run apps in the background (backgrounder)
5. get a free open-source turn-by-turn gps (xgps)
6. system-wide cut and paste (clippy)
7. have a flashlight app that illuminates at full strength

I could go on but you get the idea. And jailbreaking is very easy – just google it. I did not want to jailbreak my iPhone 3g, I HAD to do it. Imagine buying a car and the car company tries to tell you what you can and cannot do to the engine. Ridiculous!

[John]

It is a horrible app. If a group ot neo-nazis made a "kill all Jews" app, would you say that it's just an innocent app? I certainly hope not.