Calls to ban ‘smacking’ of children in England

Campaigners are calling for a UK-wide ban on the smacking of children

Transcript

00:00so physical punishment is allowed in law because of a defense called reasonable punishment and

00:06that's an exception to the law of assault that something done by a parent to a child on the

00:11grounds of punishment is is okay as lawful we want to see that repealed we want to get rid of that

00:17that there shouldn't be any exception because the existence of that exception means that children

00:21have less protection from physical harm than the rest of us do and we don't think that that's okay

00:26but we know that legal change is only one bit of that jigsaw not only do you need to change the law

00:32you need to tell people that you've changed the law and really importantly support parents because

00:38parenting is really difficult often physical punishment arises in moments of heightened stress

00:43in a household so parents need better support to navigate and how to establish boundaries with

00:50their children and but in a more positive and non-violent way according to new nspcc research

00:5882 of 18 to 24 year olds believe that any force whatsoever by a parent towards a child is

01:04unacceptable this is an increase on 64 in 2023 this is a clear indication of shifting societal

01:12and parenting attitudes when it comes to adults of all ages 71 said physically punishing a child is wrong

01:19a department for education spokesperson said while we are looking closely at the legal changes made in

01:26wales and scotland in relation to smacking we have no plans to legislate at this stage decades ago it was

01:34more acceptable to use physical punishment in the home but also it was it was typical to use physical

01:39punishment in schools and that's something that we look back now with some horror that that was ever

01:45the case that you would send a child to school and that they would be physically punished but we

01:49haven't kept up with those changing attitudes in terms of physical punishment in the home so our poll

01:55would suggest that the majority of adults think that physical punishment's no longer acceptable that's

02:01particularly the case amongst young adults and among the parents that we polled so we think that the law

02:07actually needs to keep up with our changing attitudes and changing practice and parenting we campaign on a lot of

02:13issues across the uk um for things that we think um should help keep children safe but in terms of

02:19physical harm i think that removing the reasonable punishment defense is a really simple and easy thing

02:25that the government can do that will make a huge difference

02:27you