Nursery World - Ban all smacking, parliament is told

Children's charities presented the case for a complete ban on all physical punishment of children to a Scottish Parliament committee last week. Members of the Children are Unbeatable! Alliance, which includes Save the Children Scotland and Children First, argued that the Scottish Executive's proposal to outlaw smacking of under-threes did not go far enough. They warned that permitting adults to hit older children with the legal defence of 'reasonable chastisement' disregarded children's human rights, perpetuated violence such as bullying at school, and was inconsistent with a modern democracy.

Members of the Children are Unbeatable! Alliance, which includes Save the Children Scotland and Children First, argued that the Scottish Executive's proposal to outlaw smacking of under-threes did not go far enough. They warned that permitting adults to hit older children with the legal defence of 'reasonable chastisement' disregarded children's human rights, perpetuated violence such as bullying at school, and was inconsistent with a modern democracy.

Their view was endorsed by the British Psychological Society's written evidence to the Justice 2 Committee, which pointed out that there appeared to be a direct association between the frequency of slapping and spanking during childhood and a lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorder and alcohol abuse.

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