Newtown Student Launches Effort To Get Rid Of Violent Video Games

Newtown, CT — Twelve-year-old Max Goldstein thinks that violent video games belong in the dumpster, and he’s setting an example.

Following last Friday’s shooting rampage at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in his hometown, the Newtown 7th grader is getting rid of all of his own video games and wants America’s kids to do the same.

Max said “I really think it’s inappropriate and rude to the families, who lost children, who lost sons and daughters, to play these games.”

With his parents and brother Jackson, Max Goldstein has started an organization to encourage gamers to voluntarily stop playing, according to CBS News:

“With his parents help he’s created a group called ‘Played Out’ that uses the slogan ‘We choose not to play.’ It urges fellow kids to ditch their violent games as well.”

In Newtown starting today, kids and adults can dump their video games at the Newtown sports academy. “We have bins at our local sports center and people can drop off their games, and we have the local dump planning to destroy them,” Goldstein said.

According to the Hartford Courant, Goldstein changed his mind about video games during the funeral of one of the children killed at Sandy Hook.

“As he listened to the prayers and songs, it hit him, Max said, ‘how real this was.’ He didn’t want to kill, even in the illusory sense of a video game.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as various organizations involved in gun issues such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), have also been condemning video games following this tragedy.

Do you believe that people are hopelessly addicted to video games? If not, do you think the “Played Out” movement will take off in this country as a result of the Newtown tragedy?

Are you of the opinion that video games affect behavior in a negative way?

Watch a CBS interview with Max Goldstein of Newtown, Connecticut: