I think the current government should ban the smacking of children!

Yes but it will be a Labour government who eventually bans smacking I suspect.

More to the point they should ban the gratuitous use of exclamation marks.

Why do people who defend the smacking children say vocal abuse is worse

No-one is actually defending smacking. They are pointing out their own issues from childhood when it comes to abuse.

I'm still waiting to see what you are actively doing about this? Other than saying the same thing over and over on this thread.

I was smacked as a child, although just as, if not more effective was being pulled aside in a shop/public place and being told (in a particular telling off voice) never to again. That usually made me cry, and was worse than a smack imo.
I have never smacked my own children but I have lost the plot with them before and felt really guilty afterwards. I can still remember one day when DD was about 6 and I completely lost it with her. She went to school in tears , I was in tears. I still feel awful about it 10 years later. I've no idea if she remembers it.
I do think it is socially unacceptable to smack children, and while I think children should be protected I wonder how it is policed or whether more children will be protected if it was made law. If anyone on MN questions or judges another person's parenting, they are overwhelmingly told to MYOB, so would people report ? (more so than now, for instance).
I can think of a lot of instances of current laws that almost no one would be brought to account for, because the likelihood of being caught, fined or reported is so low.
Agree that more support (financial and public perception) for SS to support families where children are at potential risk is key.

Sadly I don’t think banning smacking will change much since those that deploy it are largely beyond reach of such societal or legislative pressures. Anyone that uses corporal punishment as a form of behaviour management with their child won’t stop because it’s made illegal
And sadly children’s services can barely deal with the tip of the iceberg right now so reports of smacking need to be either pushed up the abuse agenda or see token short lived and probably meaningless interventions take place

It's already against the law to leave a mark they lasts longer than 10 minutes... I provide evidence of a mark that lasted overnight and was told no judge would action it unless it happened repeatedly. So unless the law is upheld better than that, it is utterly meaningless.

Yes absolutely, removes some grey area as regards physical abuse. Sets a standard for parenting.

Nobody should be slapping children. It shouldn't require legislation for this but, if it does, go ahead ASAP.

That is not what the law is for.

"It's a bullshit solution. "

No it's not. Making something illegal sends out a strong message that a particular action is not tolerated. We don't allow adults to assault other adults, we should certainly not allow adults to legally do the same to kids.

You can literally apply the "oh, what's the point?" argument to any crime. It's a stupid argument.

You are being very hopeful if you think the current government will do this.

At least in Scotland and Wales, children will now be given the same protection against assault as adults.

I thought they had tbh

@MangyInseam I agree with everything you said.

In jurisdictions where it's been introduced it is very rarely prosecuted and hard to meet the criminal standard of proof. It is very commonly abused by people with an agenda, such as separating families.

It disproportionately impact new migrants who come from countries where smacking is just part of normal and good parenting. It causes rifts in migrant families where the parents don't know it's 'bad' here, the children who have better English go to school and find out it's 'illegal', the next time their parents won't let them go out or buy them an iPhone they can call the cops and cause strife. Not their fault, teenagers are dramatic etc and don't understand consequences.

It's a bullshit solution.

If government cares about healthy safe families then they should invest in more maternity support, more social services, better education etc.

It will do a lot more than criminalising something that was considered perfectly normal 30 years ago.

Here is the thing - a law that doesn't get used is not really that useful. If we look at countries where it is against the law, you don't see that it is really used a deterrent in cases where it is just smacking. One of the basic principles of good lawmaking is that you only make laws you can and intend to enforce. They aren't just signals of what is socially ok or not.

It's already illegal to physically abuse or beat a child. And yes, there is a difference between a smack that is not intended to cause harm, and a beating that is.

We could also ask what a law like this could lead to. A few people have mentioned that they found being yelled at more stressful than being smacked. If you look at groups that are very anti-smacking, many go on to say, and these other punishments are also equally stressful - time out, taking away toys or privileges, yelling, etc. Whether or not these are very good methods, if we can show they could potentially cause as much harm as smacking to a child, are we comfortable wit the idea they also might be made illegal.

What is the potential for, say, an emotionally abusive parent to accuse another parent of smacking in order to cut off access?

The other thing I'd say is the research on the effects of smacking is pretty ambivalent. It seems to suggest that it's mainly damaging to kids when it's not common, in societies where it is common kids aren't so negatively affected by it.

Laws should really as much as possible be based on evidence.

@TheTonEffect same here. Shouting caused me distress when I was a kid and I definitely remember those times.

Once something is against the law, there can be no justifying it any longer. There are plenty of people on here who support violence and intimidation of small children.
It is distasteful and unacceptable when posters try to justify violence by minimising it as a light tap. We wouldn't accept it between two adults so why allow a large adult to intimidate and physically frighten a small child.?

I thought it already was - whichever though,,anyway to try to protect children I will fully support..

It should have been banned years ago. It is abuse, plain and simple.