Thursday, April 23, 2009

iPhone App Gives Apple an Ethical Headache


Apple pulled a controversial iPhone application just two days after the software designer, Sikalosoft, put the app on sale for .99 cents. The problem: the application, "Baby Shaker" gave users the opportunity to shake a gerber-esque baby so harshly as to put a stop to its crying.

This is straight from the promotional materials: "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. Before Baby Shaker there was nothing you could do about it."

Apple's decision comes after harsh criticism from several organizations including the Shaken Baby Syndrome Foundation. Certainly, the slack from this will weigh heavily on Apple over the coming weeks.

Apple may have to decide to put limits on its extremely democratized application development software. The ethical dilemma persists, to be free for all or limit the freedom to monitor and control?

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