An NSPCC study found that 98 per cent of parents in Britain now believe it is wrong to smack a child with a hard object, while only three per cent think it is all right to shake a child.
The findings were revealed last week by NSPCC senior research officer Susan Creighton at a conference in London on encouraging helpful parenting practices. The conference, called 'It never did me any harm ...', was jointly organised by the National Early Years Network, the National Childminding Association, the Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association and the NSPCC.
At the conference, health and childcare professionals called for the Government to scrap the 1860 law of 'reasonable chastisement' and to replace it with a modern law stating that hitting children is wrong and can be emotionally and physically harmful. Last week the United Nations committee on the rights of the child criticised the British Government for not having done enough to protect children.
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