INTRODUCTION
There are many varieties of issues around the world. One of the major problems and issues is the smacking of children and the statistic a showing that it grows rapidly and becoming a worldwide problem. There have been uncountable pros and cons opinions and results that could cover this topic and blog. In the first paragraph there will be some statistics about smacking of children, second paragraph will be laws that are put in against smacking and the final paragraph will be about how to reduce smacking without resulting child abuse.
PERCENTAGE OF THAT SMACK THEIR CHILD
A debate was held between two charity workers who had opposite opinions about smacking of children on
BBC online, it was found that more than 70 percents of the public wear against smacking of children. Also,
89 percents of people who participated in a statistical survey agreed that sometimes it was necessary to smack or discipline by smacking a child. Additionally a survey which was done in New Zealand by a market researching company found that "51 percent of mothers surveyed admitted to hitting their child in this time". As well as the number of people who oppose the anti smacking law has risen from 73 percents of the people who participated. In another survey done in Australia had an opposite result, out of the
301 Victorians surveyed 10 percents of parents resulting in red marks or bruises that do not go away for several days: how ever most of the people who participated agreed that they do not tolerate any severer physical punishment.
Chief executive of Australians Against Child Abuse said that 75 percents of people said that they think naughty children should be smacked, however they found that they don't think any children should be smacked with any sort of objects for instance stick, cane, belts or slippers.
LAW AGAINST SMACKING
In many countries smacking of children is prohibited by law, for instance in New Zealand the
anti smacking law was set in place in 2007. However 87 percents of people wanted the law over turned because they thought that "a smack as part of good parental correction" should be ok. But in some areas of Australia parents are allowed by law to smack their children if they have a reasonable reason for the punishment. In England there is strict laws that say that unless the parent has a resonable reason they cannot smack their children, however there are strict guidelines on what is a reasonable smack and what a reasonable reason is; but no matter what the situation is smacking with a
"implement" is not allowed not matter what the reason is. Smacking becomes a criminal offence if the child is wounded or has been bodily harmed for example anything worse than a graze, scratch, abrasion, minor bruising, swelling, reddening of the skin, superficial cuts and a black eye; also if the child is under the age of 16 it is a criminal act. If this is found to be purposely done the parent would have caused a serious offence which could give them a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
REDUCING NUMBER OF SMACKING
In order to reduce the numbers of parents that smack their children countries all over the world are putting in place laws that protect children with the United Nations rights of children laws. In
Germany they have started an anti child smacking campaign by making posters and advertisement of TV spots to reduce the number of people smacking their children. Germany have made slogans like "help, instead of punish" and "more respect for children" to promote not to smack children. A research done by a US based sociologist Professor
Murray Straus who has been studying the effects of smacking 40 years has found that out of 800 children between the ages of 2 and 4 showed that children who had been smacked had 5
IQ levels lower than children that had not been smacked over a 4 year period; this is due to the fact that the children that are smacked live in fear and are physically and mentally stressed. This
kind of research will help reduce the number of parents smacking their children because all parents want their children to be smart. However parents that sometimes give thier children a tap on bottom occasionally do not have to worry damaging or hurting their child.
TO CONCLUDE
There for in conclusion you can see that children are still being smacked all over the world, personally I dislike the idea of children being smacked; so hoping the efforts of people who are against smacking children and are running anti smacking campaigns like the ones in Germany result in a successful project. This will lead to the numbers of parents that smack their children will decrease, as well as the parents thought that smacking their children will make them right is not the right way sometimes "help, instead of punish".
REFERENCES
Cosh, J. (2002, August 14). Anti - smacking laws: Time to stop
NurseryWorld. Retrieved from
http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/725230/Anti-smacking-laws-Time-stop/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH
Sikora, K. (2009, September 25).
Smacking can lower children's IQ, research claims. Retrieved from October 26, 2010, from
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/spanking-long-used-by-parents-to-discipline-naughty-children-can/story-e6frf00i-1225779278575
Lain, Bainbridge. (2004, July 5).
Smacking children. Retrieved October 26, 2010, from
http://www.cyc-net.org/features/ft-smacking2.html
Most support smacking naughty children: study. (2002, July 12).
The age. Retrieved from
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/11/1026185087343.html
Smack the child, go to jail: parents pressured. (2009, August 23).
The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/smack-the-child-go-to-jail-parents-pressured-20090822-euef.html
