Smacking Children Should Be Banned

[Jazzy]

Parents should be banned from smacking their children, according to the Children's Commissioner for England.

Maggie Atkinson told The Independent it was her personal view that the law gives pets and adults more rights to be protected from violence than children.

Dr Atkinson said she favours a total ban on smacking, which would see parents face criminal action for corporal punishment.

Current rules make it illegal for a parent to smack a child if it leaves a bruise, but permit a lighter smack or "reasonable chastisement".

Dr Atkinson said: "Personally, having been a teacher, and never having had an issue where I'd need to use physical punishment, I believe we should move to ban it.

"Because in law you are forbidden from striking another adult, and from physically chastising your pets, but somehow there is a loophole around the fact that you can physically chastise your child."

She added: "It's a moral issue. The morals are that, taken to its extreme, physical chastisement is actually physical abuse and I have never understood where you can draw the line between one and the other."

Dr Atkinson, who has two adult step-children, said that despite her strong feelings about the issue, her office was not planning to fight for a ban next year.

She said in the current climate such a move would be "running up a blind alley".

Her comments are likely to re-open the debate about what constitutes "reasonable" punishment of children, the newspaper said.

Source

What, if anything, is wrong with parents smacking their children?

 

[DrLeftover]

So they want more young hoodlums who have no sense of self control and no idea why they should take personal responsibility for their actions.

OK with me.

 

[Jazzy]

So they want more young hoodlums who have no sense of self control and no idea why they should take personal responsibility for their actions.

How does smacking them teach them self control?

 

[DrLeftover]

I had thought they were talking about what we in the US call "paddling for misbehavior".

If they're instead talking about a right cross to the jaw for no reason at all, then it doesn't.

 

[Jazzy]

I had thought they were talking about what we in the US call "paddling for misbehavior".

They are the only:

Current rules make it illegal for a parent to smack a child if it leaves a bruise

 

[Sinon]

Honestly, I think it's a bad idea. This whole protect the children crusade has gotten out of hand, because the lack of discipline is going to turn around and bite people when these kids who were never set boundaries go off the rails and start randomly attacking people for the fun of it. I was smacked as a kid, if I did something wrong or stupid like running across the road without looking. It worked. Associating incorrect actions with pain makes it a lot easier to decide not to do them again.

Kids these days are little shits because there's no discipline whatsoever. Mommy and daddy can't dole out any punishment because all the kid has to do is call Childline and boom, lawsuit. Teachers have absolutely zero control over unruly students because there are so many laws that they're afraid to even put their hand on their shoulder to try and calm them down; it can be viewed as assault. It's bullshit.

 

[Naiwen]

Honestly, I think it's a bad idea. This whole protect the children crusade has gotten out of hand, because the lack of discipline is going to turn around and bite people when these kids who were never set boundaries go off the rails and start randomly attacking people for the fun of it. I was smacked as a kid, if I did something wrong or stupid like running across the road without looking. It worked. Associating incorrect actions with pain makes it a lot easier to decide not to do them again.

Kids these days are little shits because there's no discipline whatsoever. Mommy and daddy can't dole out any punishment because all the kid has to do is call Childline and boom, lawsuit. Teachers have absolutely zero control over unruly students because there are so many laws that they're afraid to even put their hand on their shoulder to try and calm them down; it can be viewed as assault. It's bullshit.

And since they (the teachers) fear the law so much, they wouldn't dare smack the children anymore.

 

[Kirito]

They even want to make a little tick illegal now? *sigh*

Personally I don't think violence is necessary to punish a child, but at the moment parents don't do even that. I saw a father and his annoying little son of maybe 3 or 4 years old who just kicked against a car for no reason "discussing the incident". As if you can reason with a kid that small...