England’s children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza has said that smacking must be banned for children’s safety, and urged England to follow in the footsteps of Scotland and Wales.
Currently, parents are allowed to smack their children in England and Northern Ireland as long as it is considered a “reasonable chastisement”. But de Souza said action must be taken “to keep every child safe from harm”.
Corporal punishment against children, including smacking, hitting, slapping and shaking, is banned in Wales and Scotland. Scotland changed the law to make it illegal in 2020, with Wales following suit in 2022.
Speaking to The Observer, de Souza said: “We have seen too many cases where children have been harmed and died at the hands of the people who should love and care for them most.
“A ban on smacking is a necessary step to keep children safe and to stop lower level violence from escalating.”
She added: “There are already protections for children enshrined in law in England, but now is the time to go further. If we are to make sure every child lives a life of opportunity and happiness, we must start with safety.
“How we treat and protect children says something fundamental about a society – banning the reasonable chastisement defence is an important step in making sure every child’s rights are not just met but valued.”
Which countries have banned smacking children?
As of October 2024, 74 countries have prohibited corporal punishment of children, including Scotland and Wales.
Sweden was the first country to do so in 1979. The ban has been largely considered successful, with the number of children who were smacked dropping from around half to “just a few per cent” in the 2000s, according to Save the Children Sweden.
Although more countries have since banned corporal punishment of children, these remain the minority as 121 countries have yet to do the same. This includes North America, including the US and Canada, England and Northern Ireland.
You can see the full map of countries that have banned smacking children and those that have not below. The blue areas indicate where smacking is banned.
Will England ever ban smacking children?
While there have been continuous calls for the government to ban corporal punishment of children in England, no such prohibition has been put in place.
Last year, the government rejected calls to do so and said children are already protected in law. It argued that parents should be trusted to discipline their children.
“The government does not condone any violence towards children and has clear laws in place to prevent it,” a spokesperson for the Department of Education said at the time.
But charities and campaigners have condemned the government’s decision. The NSPCC, Barnardo’s and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) believe children should have the same protection as adults.
In August, the NSPCC said it saw an increase of more than 300% in contacts to the organisation’s helpline about physical punishment against children.
It said the calls of concern included, but were not limited to, children being hit, slapped and shaken as part of discipline and punishment.
Sir Peter Wanless, NSPCC CEO, said in a statement: “It is hugely concerning that calls to our Helpline about adults using physical measures to punish their children have tripled in the past year.
“Mounting evidence shows that physically disciplining children can be damaging and counterproductive. A long over-due change in the law to prevent physical punishment of children must be delivered by our political leaders.
“The new UK government have an opportunity to show they are committed to child protection and remove this legal anomaly which would end the use of physical punishment across the UK once and for all.”
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