The Scottish Parliament voted to make smacking children a criminal offence yesterday (3.10.19).
The vote outlawed all physical punishment against all under-16s, and gave children the same protection against assault as adults.
This landmark verdict has increased the pressure to change the laws in England.
Smacking ban: Scotland becomes first UK country to outlaw physical punishment
➡ https://t.co/t7iOvV9CTj pic.twitter.com/4EMQlTcSN2
— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) October 3, 2019
Scotland is now the 58th country to ban smacking.
The decision “will inspire the other parts of the UK to give this protection to children as well,” said Bruce Adamson, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland.
“This change in the law will send a clear message to children that violence is never acceptable.”
The Mirror reports that the Scottish ban ‘uses the same definition of physical punishment used by the UN Committee on the Rights Of A Child.
It includes ‘smacking, slapping and smacking with a hand or an implement, as well as kicking, shaking or throwing children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion.’
Reports claim that Wales is also close to a ban.
How is there STILL not a UK-wide ban? The job of a parent is to bring their children up well and to teach them the difference between right and wrong. It’s far more effective and humane to discipline them by taking away privileges etc. Smacking is ASSAULT. https://t.co/Jf3MlVvUd5
— Harrison RB (@HarrisonRBRadio) October 3, 2019
Scotland has finally given children the same basic rights as adults & everyone's mad about it? If you slapped your partner, your friend, your parent, it'd be referred to as assault. A child is also a human being. Slapping a child is assault. What's to be mad about?#smackingban
— Lay⁷ (@epiphanybix) October 3, 2019
Re #SmackingBan: aside from the ineffectiveness and cruelty of it – adults hitting children is selfish because it teaches them a behaviour that if they exhibit themselves they will get into trouble for. Far from providing discipline, it demonstrates the *worst* example.
— Kirsty Strickland (@KirstyStricklan) October 3, 2019
There's nothing wrong with giving your child a light smack on the back of their hand.
It's wrong to smack your child to the point where they're afraid to come you, but it's a very different thing to disciplining a child.#smackingban— Ciara (@Ciaramay38) October 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/JonDoeNews/status/1179839344485507074
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The verdict in Scotland provoked a mixed reaction on social media.
One Twitter user wrote: “How is there STILL not a UK-wide ban? The job of a parent is to bring their children up well and to teach them the difference between right and wrong.
“It’s far more effective and humane to discipline them by taking away privileges etc. Smacking is ASSAULT.”
Disagreeing, another user commented that the banning was just another example of “human control” and it “took “away a parent’s right to physically discipline their own child”.
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