Consultation on the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill
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Tystiolaeth i’r Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg ar gyfer craffu Cyfnod 1 Bil Plant (Diddymu Amddiffyniad Cosb Resymol) (Cymru) |
Evidence submitted to the Children, Young People and Education Committee for Stage 1 scrutiny of the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill |
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CADRP-308 |
CADRP-308 |
About you
Individual
— No
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
Parents who give a smack are only giving good parental discipline. That is not child abuse nor can it be described as violent. Criminalising good parents is ridiculous. It is bad for children, families and society to prevent parents from correctly and properly disciplining their children. Smacking works as at a young age verbal warnings are usually ignored, especially if the child knows no smacking will occur. Over 80% of adults were smacked when younger, they do not think their parents were abusers. Every smack I got was totally deserved and needed.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
No! First it is the role of parents, not the government, to decide whether to smack a child. The government should have not right to use criminal law to regulate normal parenting. For those who do in fact treat children with violence, there is and has been already laws that protect these children. So no change is needed.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
A smacking ban would and should overwhelm police and social workers with trivial reports. This would prevent these already overworked people from investigating real child abuse incidents. So while criminalising thousands of good parents the real abuse cases will be obviously neglected. Some people have said that the law should be the same for children as it is with adults. That's insane. There is an age where smacking would be completely irrelevant as one becomes an adult. Furthermore, 76% of Welsh adults correctly are against a smacking ban.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
No, they will probably ignore the public vote and opinions. These people in the government, as always, believe they are a law to themselves and think they know best. They will ignore the fact that 139 countries worldwide allow parents to lovingly discipline their children and are holding on that right.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
One warning is that we have seen in Sweden that child-on-child violence increased after smacking was banned in 1979. This proved that the idea that smacking teaches children that violence is acceptable was totally wrong. For one thing smacking cannot be equated with violence, even children could see that. Smacking leaves the the parents with the inability to effectively correct their children. This has lead to the breakdown of discipline in society, schools - leading to lower grades and a rise in disorders including suicide attempts. In New Zealand, a top law firm has concluded that a smacking ban has criminalised ordinary parents. Many parents, even if a conviction is overturned, loose contact with their children.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
The social services and police are already money strapped, why make things much worse?
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
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