New calls for total smacking ban

[Samishlol]

A group of politicians want to ban parents from smacking their children.

They're trying to persuade the government to change the law so kids in England and Wales have the same protection against assault as adults.

At the moment, light smacking IS allowed but it mustn't leave a mark. In Scotland, smacking kids under the age of three has been banned since 2003.

But in Northern Ireland, an attempt to ban physical punishments for young people failed in December last year.

Find out where you can get help if you're worried about smacking

Kevin Barron, who's one of the people wanting to get the law changed, said: "We must act now to end the legal approval of hitting children.

"The current law allowing so-called 'reasonable punishment' of children is unjust, unsafe and unclear, and must be abolished once and for all."

[Wayne]

I think hitting children lightly if they do something wrong is acceptable in my opinion. But thumping, abusing, hitting children with weaponary for no reason etc is totally unacceptable.

[Slowpoke]

Bring back the cane and teach kids some respect!

[Samishlol]

Bring back the cane and teach kids some respect!

It's not about in schools. It's about parents at home

[Inseriousity.]

I think hitting children lightly if they do something wrong is acceptable in my opinion. But thumping, abusing, hitting children with weaponary for no reason etc is totally unacceptable.

Completely agree. I got light hits when I was younger (stern words below three. I agree with Scotland's law there). They always make 'praise and rewards' look so easy on those 'Supernanny' type shows but it's not and sometimes a light hit emphasises what will happen if you do naughty. It never did me any harm...

lol, I sound old now... 'when I was younger' and being able to remember watching the episodes on UKTV Gold means I'm reaching old age :p

[Aarcn]

Completely agree. I got light hits when I was younger (stern words below three. I agree with Scotland's law there). They always make 'praise and rewards' look so easy on those 'Supernanny' type shows but it's not and sometimes a light hit emphasises what will happen if you do naughty. It never did me any harm...

lol, I sound old now... 'when I was younger' and being able to remember watching the episodes on UKTV Gold means I'm reaching old age :p

U ARE OLD

[reeana]

It's not about in schools. It's about parents at home

You can get caned at home too.

[ToxicPaddy]

On one hand, smacking kids is never the answer. It just teaches them that violence sorts out things, when infact, it makes it worse. Also if you are smacked at the age of lets say 4, it can give you terrible memories of your parents when you grow up. In extreme cases, (and they are very extreme) people can be traumatized by it (although this is usually in abusive cases).

However, on the other hand you feel it can be the answer. For example, if you go through the supermarket and see some little brat screaming and stamping his/her feet on the floor for sweets, you can think to yourself 'omg if he was mine i would have belted him'.

In my opinion, light smacking should be allowed. But thats all, light smacking.

[Earthquake]

Yeah I read this a while ago, smacking your own kid isn't so bad, when the police said to my dad to give me a smack round the head if I piss him off, then he should do so, just don't leave a mark.

[GommeInc]

I don't see where these claims are coming from :S Pretty much all kids were smacked lightly when they were naughty when they were young. It's a way to teach the kid to acknowledge bad behaviour, they know they've done bad because they can feel something that goes with it e.g. a prod or a full handed, light tap on the hand which they can't ignore. Children ignore the fact theyre being ignored or told "behave" most of time anyway, because they receive nothing out of the situation.

Example:

A 5 year old goes out to dinner with her family; her mum, dad, grandma, grandad and her 2 brothers. She starts chucking food at everyone. Everyone starts looking at her telling her "NO!" In most cases, this means nothing to children, they'll just continue because children do have a good way of ignoring verbal commands. However, a very soft slap on the hand and even grabbing (which this ban will also disallow, no doubt) would at least get it through to the child, because with children, actions speak louder than words.

Look at any sort of media children use... Books have pictures in to engage the child, reading just isn't enough to keep them pleased. TV usually has annoyingly coloured characters - If they were plain and simple, like Eastenders, Coronation Street, the child would conk out and not really listen.