iPhone "Baby Shaker" App Pulled - What Was Apple Thinking?

Seth, you are an idiot. It's not that people just don't "like" this app. It's downright dangerous!!! Probably about 1/2 of adults actively know not to shake a baby and the other 1/2 either don't know or don't have kids and don't make it their business.
The danger here is in the impressionable young minds of teens who aren't quite parents yet, but will be soon. Yes, they are dumb enough to refer back to this sick game and say "well, it worked on the phone, maybe it will work in real life."

Irrelevant---oh yeah! Kudos, Seth!

Yeah, let's ban this! Because, judging by the comments here, apparently nobody--with the exception of Seth--can tell reality from a GAME. And let's ban people breastfeeding in public, 'cause I REALLY don't want to see that either. And let's ban sex, violence, reality shows, and everything else on t.v.--oh, man, maybe even in REAL LIFE--let's ban sex there too!--violent video games--wow, let's just ban EVERYTHING that offends ANYBODY! Heaven help anyone who's not politically correct... Hey, I hate American Idol---make SURE that gets banned too, because it REALLY offends intelligent people everywhere (all two of us). I don't like it. Let's throw Simon in jail for life, 'cause he annoys me.

Better yet, let's just all move to China and let them tell us how to think, what should & shouldn't offend us, and what we can/can't look at/read/talk about/do/etc. It's for our own "protection" against, apparently, OURSELVES. I mean, if we can't tell that this is just a stupid computer application, maybe everyone SHOULD all be locked up and be mandatorily STERILIZED. A nation that is so stupid that it's taking parenting advice from a video game shouldn't be allowed to reproduce. (Oh, wait, don't they already have a program similar to this in China? The one-kid only policy? Hmm...makes ya' think...looking all over this board, maybe not such a bad idea...)

Seth---agree with you 100%. Probably the only one here who gets what you're saying, but then again, I'm probably the only other one on here with a sense of HUMOR, too. Anyone who wants to bitch about MY opinion--I could care less about YOURS. Get a life--better yet, get a sense of humor & lighten up. Look at it this way--at least it's a way for people in movie theaters, shopping malls, etc., to get out their frustrations about the screaming kids with oblivious parents without actually killing someone else's kid--plus, as you stated at the beginning--the whole thing is IRRELEVANT. Just like the opinions of everyone else on here.

And BTW, last time I checked, "offensive" is subjective. It's not a crime to come up with an "offensive", violent video game and blame a "murder" on it any more than all the crap that Hollywood pushes in slasher movies--none of them go to jail either Until every producer/director/actor/movie studio exec/etc. who ever put out a movie that was violent and was blamed for some moron's serial murders because they "got the idea from a movie", guess you're out of luck with mandatorily banning this, too. SORRY...

P.S. Always love when someone drags out that tired, over-used catchphrase "moral compass" like a it's a friggin' mantra...lol...

The BIG difference IS the content. If there was a game based on raping babies and then killing them, it would NOT be on the shelves. GTA is for adults about adults doing "bad" things in a game. If a game was a PEDO game, trust me, it would be OFF the Shelves as well! As it should. And shaking a baby is a common crime against a minor, child. It should not be glamorized or laughed at. So many pathetic people already take it lightly and hurt and kill babies. I recently got to see a video of a baby's eyes after being shaken and later died. The eyes broke my spirit and here this game aims for the red X eyes....truly sick. If you are an adult who likes to pretend to kill other adults in your game boy, that's your problem, don't encourage children and babies to get hurt along with all this other crap!

ninainindia posted this in part: "Why is shaking babies on your phone not funny and shouldn't be allowed, when there are tons of games in stores (aimed at children!) advocating killing people by running them over with your car?"

My reply: Actually, IF you mean the GTA series for instance, it is NOT aimed at children. Video games have a rating system similar to movies in the USA. The Grand Theft Auto series consistantly gets a "M" rating, which would more or less equate to an "R" for a film, in fact a "M" is perhaps a slightly stronger rating. A "M" rating on a game means that the game is not to be sold to those under the age of 18. Now do retailers sell said games to people under 18 with such a rating? Some might, some might not. But that's just like movie theatres that might let people under 17 get into a R rated film.

Anyway, you're just ASSUMING that video game means it's marketed for children. That is obviously not the case with any game that gains a "M" rating or stronger.

With regards to the Baby Shaker application, it is very distasteful, yes. If Apple wishes to no longer sell it, that is their decision. But I will say though that if the application was marketed with a "M" rating that as much as I found it distasteful, the people do have a right to sell it..if they can find a store to sell it for them. But then again, consider this: Most video games are sold for multiple "platforms", the GTA series that I mentioned is usually sold to be played on 2 or 3 game systems, and then a few months later ported so a version of it can also be played on the PC. This application was made to be sold on one specific piece of electronics, period. If GTA gets a bad reputation, it doesn't hurt the reputation of any one specific video game system or resellers of personal computers. It only hurts Rockstar Games, the people that produce GTA. If this Baby Shaker application gets a bad reputation, and if Apple contunued to sell it, it would be much more likely to hurt Apple's reputation. THAT right there makes comparing the Baby Shaker application somewhat of an apples to oranges (no pun intended) comparsion to video games played on the computer or a game system.

The problem with this is that teenagers, who are usually the ones to get these applications, are more and more often becoming babies with babies. This encourages shaking a baby to make it quiet down...Specifically, someone else's baby! Any game that promotes violence should be taken off the market...but the point is, that this is encouraging the abuse, permanent injury and even death of a helpless child...for simply communicatin! Crying is their only means of communication. It is absolutely disgusting!