When it comes to the topic of parents punishing children, people have strong feelings about whether it is crossing the line to hit your child. Now, Scotland is aiming to be the first part of the UK to ban parents from smacking their children. The Scottish government confirmed the vote will take place sometime next year.
Scotland will not be the first country to turn parents into criminals for punishing their children. There are 52 other countries who also have this law on the books, including France, Sweden, and Switzerland. The United Kingdom and the United States do not have any law on the books around spanking childrenas of yet.
The Scottish Government said it would “ensure” that proposals put forward by the Green MSP John Finnie were implemented, after previously suggesting it would merely not oppose them Mr. Finnie has brought forward a Member’s Bill which aims to remove the defence of “justifiable assault” from Scottish law, which can currently be used by parents who punish their children.
In her Programme for Government speech last month, Nicola Sturgeon announced that ministers would not oppose his proposals, suggesting that MSPs should be given a free vote on the issue.
Supporters of the law say that spanking teaches children that violence is the way to solve problems. Opponents of the law believe that our children need to learn respect for their elders and that coddling our children is bad for them and society. Images like this are now popping up all over the internet:
“Mr. Finnie’s proposals are not a Scottish Government Bill, however we will ensure the proposals become law,” a spokeswoman said. “We believe physical punishment can have negative effects on children which can last long after the physical pain has died away. “We support positive parenting through, for example, funding for family support services.”
There is no ban in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, with parents allowed to use “reasonable chastisement” as long as they do not leave a mark, swelling, cut or bruise.
There have been numerous studies done on whether or not spanking is harmful to children. In 2016, a group of scientists decided to look closely at these studies and what they found is rather surprising.
The results show that the differences between children who were spanked and those who were not are very small once they became adults. Also, there is no proof that spanking caused these differences. It could be that the children who were spanked were predisposed to bad behavior as a part of their personality, and that is why they were being spanked as a child.
The bottom line is that it’s very hard to prove or disprove whether or not spanking a child has any long-term effects. However, it seems letting children get away with misbehaving is having a very real effect on our society.
One of the professors who looked at the studies, Bob Larzelere from Oklahoma State University, suggests that there may be a good middle ground. He believes that spanking should be used only when children don’t respond to another form of punishment first. For instance, if the child refuses to go into a “time out” or spending time alone in their room.
Have you ever been out at a restaurant or another public place and seen a child disrespecting their parents or elders? What do you think should be done about it?
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