Apple buckled under pressure from angry New York pols Tuesday and agreed to raise the age restriction on a violent new National Rifle Association shooting game from 4 to 12.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, who had been pushing to get the parental rating raised to age 17, called Apple’s move “a step in the right direction.”
"Apple did the right thing by acknowledging that this game isn't for young children, but (the company) should go farther and make the restrictions as tight as possible," said Schumer.
"The NRA has acted in an unbelievably hypocritical fashion by blaming the nation's gun violence on video games and movies, then coming out with a game — for children — featuring assault weapons."
There was no immediate response from the NRA. But the powerful gun lobby had touted its “NRA: Practice Range” app, which allows would-be snipers to choose a weapon and shoot at targets that resemble coffins, the “right balance of gaming and safety education.”
MEDL MOBILE
The game got through Apple’s rigorous screening because it does not depict actual violence against animals or humans and does not urge users to do anything illegal.
Apple made no comment about its decision to alert the app’s rating from “4+” to “12+,” but merely adjusted the app’s page in the iTunes store.
The move came after The Daily News slapped the NRA’s app on the front page — and after the senator raised a stink with company CEO Tim Cook.
Schumer and other New York leaders said the game was especially galling that the NRA’s new app for iPads and iPhones was released on the first month anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
They noted that NRA chief Wayne LaPierre blamed violent video games — not guns — for the deaths of 20 first graders and six school staffers in Newtown, Conn.
“It’s the height of hypocrisy,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
Apple gives the final approval for all apps, based on the company’s clear guidelines about violent content.
“We’re keeping an eye out for the kids,” the guideline says in its introduction, before then listing all the myriad requirements software developers face.
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The app also allows you to target practice on coffins.
Among other things, Apple bans apps that portray “realistic images of people or animals being killed” or which “target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity.”
Under those guidelines, an app game called “Endgame Syria” was rejected because it invites users to "explore the options open to the rebels” who are currently trying to topple the despotic Syrian government.
In the NRA game, kids can work up from a Beretta M-9 handgun to a Colt M-16 assault rifle. And for 99 cents extra, they can “unlock” high-capacity guns similar to the Bushmaster that Adam Lanza used to slaughter innocents in Newtown.
They also get gun safety tips like “always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.”
The NRA game does appear to thread the needle of Apple’s guidelines because no animals or humans are harmed, there’s no racial or ethnic violence, and there is no depiction of illegal acts.
But it was released just as Vice President Biden was preparing to deliver an array of ideas to curb gun violence to President Obama — and as The News delivered nearly 127,000 signatures on an anti-gun petition to Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo.
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For just 99 cents, kids get to unlock some real firepower: an MK-11.
The NRA game was designed by California-based MEDL Mobile Inc., a cutting-edge firm whose clients include the New York Times, Teleflora and Monster.com.
Company honcho Andrew Maltin told the News he was happy Apple raised the age restriction but bristled when asked how he, as a dad, could release such an app.
“This has nothing to do with fatherhood,” he said.
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