http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/paediatrics-expert-want-smack-banned/story-e6frea6u-1226261279464

[3 February 2012] - The head of Australia's peak paediatric body says mums and dads should be banned from smacking their children. 

Dr Gervase Chaney said it was no longer OK for parents to argue "it never did us any harm" and has called on his colleagues to stand up for kids' rights.

It comes as a leading Royal Children's Hospital paediatrician expressed concern Australia is lagging behind other countries in outlawing smacking, which he said in some cases was tantamount to child abuse.

Dr Chaney is pushing for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Paediatric & Child Health Division to officially support a ban for the first time, as the body reviews its formal stance on smacking.

He said it was likely to be backed this year with the college to then call on the government for legislative change.

While there are no laws preventing parents from smacking their children in South Australia, corporal punishment was abolished in SA schools by 1991. Teachers are obliged by law to notify Families SA of suspected abuse. Dr Chaney, the division president, said he believed the current position - opposing the use of physical discipline as an "ineffective and unhelpful" method of punishing children - did not go far enough.

"There has been good evidence that in countries where it has been banned there is a reduction in child abuse," he said.

"Although many people have used physical discipline, and it is still regarded in most of our society as an acceptable form of parenting, there is no clear delineation between what is acceptable as a smack and what is child abuse."

Dr Chaney said "occasionally" smacking his children as a young dad made him miserable, and he made a pact with his wife 12 years ago to never do it again.

His comments come after the Royal College of Paediatrics in the UK called for a smacking ban this week, saying too often "today's smack becomes tomorrow's punch". 

The issue has polarised opinion in Australia with the Presbyterian Church last year backing the right by parents to smack their child within limits.

The church's submission to a Victorian government inquiry said there was "a significant body of research confirming its utility in raising children well".

Professor Frank Oberklaid, director of the RCH's Centre for Community Child Health in Melbourne, agreed smacking should be legislated against. He said it sent the wrong message to children. ." There were many instances of severe injuries and even deaths as a result of smacking, he said.

Further Information: 

• VIOLENCE: Amazon CEO ignores petition urging it to stop selling 'parenting manuals' that advocate child abuse (30 January 2012) 
• CHINA: Teacher made students slap each other as punishment (11 January 2011) 
• IRELAND: Total ban on smacking children under consideration by gov't (3 January 2012) 
• CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: Child's death sheds light on biblical disciplinary teachings (11 November 2011) 
• CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: A generation of kids who've never been spanked (10 November 2011) 
• WALES: Breakthrough towards banning smacking (24 October 2011) 
• CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: New handbook to support faith-based approaches to ending corporal punishment (21 June 2011)
• EUROPE: Council of Europe presses UK to introduce total ban on smaking children (26 April 2010)
• CRIN's microsite on Violence against Children
• CRIN's Forms of Violence page on **Physical punishment**
• More on children's rights in Australia 

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Last updated 03/02/2012 11:34:33

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