FierceUgly.com

Oh. My. God.

Apple has apologised for a “deeply offensive” iPhone application called Baby Shaker, which made a game of quieting crying babies by shaking them.

It removed the $0.99 (£0.59) game from its iTunes Store on Wednesday, two days after it went on sale.

It sparked outrage from children’s groups and brain injury foundations.

The aim of the game was to quiet babies by shaking the iPhone until a pair of thick red Xs appeared over each eye of a baby drawn in black-and-white.

Full story here.

This is way over the line. I’m all for a nice controversial game… if you never played Sock & Awe, the infamous flash game in which you fling shoes at old Dubya, I highly recommend it. Of course Bush supporters were offended, but who cares about them, right? Besides, there are two sides to political issues. Some are for the issue, and some against.

There are no two sides here. I’ve never heard of a group that defends the shaking of infants as a suitable disciplinary technique. It’s universally agreed that shaking the hell out of a crying baby is despicable and damaging.

If the inventor of this app was going for funny, they missed the mark in a major way. Only psychos would find this game amusing, and it’s not likely that sociopaths make up a large part of Apple’s consumer base. This game was sure to offend everyone who came across it. Not a very smart move in regards to public relations.

The game was taken down from the iTunes site a mere two days after making its debut, and public apologies were made, but I have to wonder if irreversible damage has been done. I also wonder how the bloody hell this app got past the approval department. I have a feeling someone’s getting fired, and rightfully so.