Apple yanked a despicable iPhone application from its online store today, putting to bed the “Baby Shaker” program that directs users to simulate infanticide.
The 99-cent download brings the image and sound of a crying baby to the phone. Then after the user’s vigorous shaking, the crying stops and red x-marks cover the baby’s eyes, gleefully marking its death.
There’s a stop watch at the top of the screen to time the user.
“Baby Shaker” first showed up on Apple’s App Store on Monday, but 2 ½ days of bad publicity finally forced the tech giant to dump it.
“Apple is supposed to have this rigorous vetting process where you can’t even curse on an application — but now it’s OK to simulate killing a baby?” said Jennipher Dickens, communications director for The Sarah Jane Brain Project, a group that seeks to prevent childhood brain injuries.
While “Baby Shaker” is gone from Apple, it’s still available through developer Sikalosoft.
The taste-challenged makers describe their program: “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 … See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!”
Sikalosoft did add this warning: “Never, never shake a baby.”
Natalie Kerris, a rep for the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant Apple, had little say about the oddball application: “I can confirm that it was removed … but I have no further comment.”