“Baby Shaker” Game Gets Approved, Then Pulled From App Store

By Akela Talamasca on April 23rd, 2009

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Apple Computer’s iPhone has provided the means for amateur developers worldwide to exercise their creativity without necessarily worrying about commercial success. Even the most rudimentary concept can be fleshed out and sent to Apple for approval to be included in its App Store. This has succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings, with Apple gearing up for its billionth app download.

While most of the apps are useful and/or fun, a particular “game” had slipped by quality control — named “Baby Shaker”, the app presents users with a cartoon baby that constantly cries. When the user finally decides to make the baby stop, they must shake the iPhone to do so, and is rewarded by the image of the baby with crossed-out eyes, indicating death.

Now, obviously this app is in extremely poor taste. There appear to be two main sides to the issue: parents who are outraged by what appears to be an “abuse simulator”, and gamers who feel that because it’s not a real baby, there is no real harm to be done. As a gamer and a father, my personal opinion falls somewhere between the two. First, yes, there is real abuse in the world, but I feel that there are few subjects that cannot be addressed by a game — it’s merely a matter of emphasis and interpretation. What would suit me better would be an educational app for soon-to-be parents that addresses the issues that all parents must confront concerning a new child.

If there were other ways to manage the baby’s cries, say, options for feeding, changing, or soothing, then this app could be a useful means of exploring appropriate behavior. But because the only choice here is to shake the baby until it dies, it fails at being neither useful nor amusing.

Second, the gamer in me agrees that it’s possible to recognize the distinction between reality and gameplay. When playing, I do not equate on-screen action with real life in any way; it’s all just pixels to me. However, by choosing to base this “game” — and that’s in quotes because it seems more like a diversion than a pursuit that you can win or lose — on an actual occurrence, the developers are drawing directly from a real life experience, and therefore expecting a real life response. If the point of the app is that it’s fun to shake the iPhone to produce an effect, there are surely hundreds of other scenarios to which this functionality could be better put. By deciding to make this about shaking a baby until it dies, the developers have counted upon the emotional response generated to produce enough controversy to create sales. And that’s just reprehensible.

Apple pulled the app from its store two days after it appeared, but it would seem that the approval process needs some fine tuning to prevent things like this happening again.