Ban smacking, children's tsar urges

[g3org3y]

article said:

Parents should be banned from smacking children, the Children's Commissioner for England, Maggie Atkinson, has said.

She told the Independent the law gave pets and adults more rights to protection from violence than children.

There was a legal "loophole around the fact that you can physically chastise your child", she added.

She called for a total ban under which parents could face criminal action. But she said that actively campaigning for a ban would not be a priority.

article said:

She said it was "a moral issue" and "taken to its extreme, physical chastisement is actually physical abuse".

She had never understood "where you can draw the line between one and the other" and it was "better that it were not permitted", she added.

But she said her office would not be campaigning for a ban next year "because there's a lot of other things in the queue"

Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25529744

I suspect the PH opinion will be divided with plenty on the 'I was smacked as a child and it never did me any harm' side.

If a child is too young to have developed abstract thinking and comprehend the consequences of their actions perhaps a smack is justified?

There seems to be a perception that if one is resorting to smacking, there has been a loss of control, I'm not so sure.