Apple Yanks 'Baby Shaker' iPhone App

Game to shut baby up met stunned outcry from children's groups

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 23, 2009 4:20 AM CDT

(Newser) – An iPhone application urging users to shake a virtual baby to death to shut it up has been pulled after an unsurprising outcry from child welfare groups, reports the San Jose Mercury News reports. A representative for Apple—which is nearing its billionth app download—refused to comment on how the app made it past the vetting team in the first place.

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Apple critics are asking how the "Baby Shaker" app made it past the notoriously finicky approval team. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

The "Baby Shaker" app invited users to shake their iPhone until red Xes appeared over the crying baby's eyes. (parislemon)

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Demonstration of the now-scrapped "Baby Shaker" app. (parislemon)

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For them to make a joke of something that is the most horrifying form of child abuse is absurd.
- Jennipher Dickens, communications director of The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation

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Apple Yanks 'Baby Shaker' iPhone App