Shaking a baby to death on your iPhone

An iPhone app simulated a crying baby, which could only be quieted by physically shaking the smartphone.  After some amount of shaking, "Baby Shaker" would display the child's death.  Apple's Apps Store approved this macabre tagamochi spawn, but deleted it today.

Put it this way:

“Baby Shaker” challenges users to see how long they can withstand the cries of a baby before they shake it to death.

The app's developer now says "Yes, the Baby Shaker iPhone app was a bad idea."

Apple has remained immune from the fearsome digital media meme, for reasons worth exploring (the cult? lack of games? Steve Jobs' demonic marketing?), but perhaps this story will enter into the broader field of creepy mobile devices.

Criticism of Apple has arisen, aimed in part at the walled-garden promise of the Apps Store.  Consumerist:

Seriously, Apple rejects a jiggling boobs app for being "obscene" but lets an "abuse a baby to death" app through?

Click here if you want to see a video clip of Baby Shaker in action.  I can't bear to embed it.

(image via Boston Herald)

Comments

[Gardner]

Thanks for not embedding this. The very idea nauseates me. The quote from Consumerist is classic and deeply disturbing on multiple levels.

Wow.

[Jim]

You are a very sick man :)

[Bryan Alexander]

It's a rough, dark little story, gents.

I wonder if more publicity would have descended, had this not been under the Apple cloak.

[headbands]

This is creepy! How can they think of killing a baby? Whoever thought of such horrible idea could have not experienced love and care in their childhood. =(

[Ajlouny]

The creator of this little app has a very sick mind.

[Long Island Personal Injury Attorney]

This app better have been removed by now.

[Carlton Berlacher]

Whoever created this app is not a normal human being, it can only be someone very mentally disturbed and how could the Apple App Store even think of approving such a heinous app even if it was for once? but thanks for deleting it.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BrightWallsArt?section_id=7660075

[kara]

horrible.

[injury lawyer nyc]

Let's talk about something genuine...This is all about ill-manners.