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2012/03: Should Australian parents be prohibited from legally smacking their children?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right:On February 2, 2012, Channel 10 News carried a report on the call from a leading Australian psychologist that smacking be banned immediately. The report looks at arguments on both sides of the issue. If you cannot see this clip, it will be because video is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows viewing of video clips.
What they said...
'[Smacking] teaches and perpetuates violence as a way to solve one's problems'
Australian child and clinical psychologist, John Waring
'I think ... [banning smacking] would make parents feel like the Government is going too far, taking over the parental role...'
CEO of Child Wise, Ms Bernadette McMenamin (Ms McMenamin personally opposes smacking)
The issue at a glance
A number of events have brought the issue of the corporal punishment of children within the home to the attention of the Australian media.
In October, 2011, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Human Rights Commission unsuccessfully attempted to have the ACT become the first jurisdiction in Australia to make the smacking of children within the home illegal.
On October 6, the ABC telecast the first episode of a television series based on Christos Tsiolkas' best-selling novel, 'The Slap'. The novel and the series have provoked wide-spread discussion of child-rearing practices in Australia.
In December, 2011, David Lammy, the MP for Tottenham, in north London, published 'Out of the Ashes', an attempt to explain the London riots of August that year as in part the result of a failure of parental discipline. Lammy calls for the reintroduction within the home of corporal punishment of children.
On February 3, 2012, the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health published a letter from the President of Paediatric and Child Health at the Royal Australian College of Physicians, Dr Gervase Chaney. In his letter, Dr Chaney calls for the medical fraternity to strengthen its position on smacking and officially support a legal ban.
The issue is always a contentious one, with the consensus of professional opinion appearing to oppose smacking and a majority of popular opinion in support of it.
Even within these parameters the debate is confused by unclear definitions of what constitutes a smack and how regularly and in what context such punishment must be employed before it can be deemed harmful.