Most adults in Britain do not believe parents should be criminalised for smacking their children, a major survey has revealed.
Out of 4,000 adults polled by YouGov, less than a third said parents should be criminalised for smacking. The proportion of younger people (aged 18-24) who supported a ban was greater (50%) than older age groups. A total of 75% of adults aged at least 65 years were against criminalising parents.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has called for politicians to remove the legal defence of ‘reasonable chastisement’ in England and Northern Ireland, saying existing laws are ‘dangerously vague’. Smacking is already banned in Wales and Scotland, but 51% of adults in those countries who were surveyed in the YouGov poll were opposed to criminalising parents .
Evangelical Christian, Simon Calvert, spokesman for the ‘Be Reasonable’ campaign, said: ‘The Great British public is far wiser on this issue than the so-called parenting experts. They understand that children are already protected from assault and so changing the law on reasonable chastisement would simply mean prosecuting innocent parents for harmless behaviour.
‘When it comes to the question of whether a mum should be able to tap a tot on the back of the hand, we should trust parents, not criminalise them.’
