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KIDS

It's perfectly legal to smack

a child in Australia. But
there's evidence it
shouldn't be.

BELINDA JEPSEN
Senior Features Writer
FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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Last week, Welsh parliament passed

legislation to make it illegal to smack
children.

Advocates for the move called it long

overdue and celebrated that children now
have the same legal protections against
assault as adults. Critics, however, argued
the ban stepped into the private lives of
families and that the government was
making criminals out of loving parents.

When the law comes into effect in 2022,

Wales will join dozens of countries including
Finland, Scotland, Austria, Norway, South
Africa and Brazil to outlaw smacking.

Watch: Do you smack your kids?

00:00 / 01:36

Video by Mamamia

But not Australia. It remains lawful here to

smack a child, under certain conditions.

The philosophical debate, however, rages

on… Is physical punishment actually
effective discipline? What message does it
send to the child? And what impact, if any,
does it have on a person in the long term?

Let’s take a look.

What does Australian law say about

smacking children?

Smacking is a kind of ‘corporal punishment’,

which is a term used to describe physical
force used for the purpose of control or
correction.

Corporal punishment by a parent or carer is

lawful in all Australian states and territories
— and not considered child abuse —
providing that it’s “reasonable”.

This is where things get murky, though. Only

NSW law actually defines what
‘unreasonable’ corporal punishment means.
(i.e. force applied “to any part of the head or
neck of the child, or to any other part of the
body of the child in such a way as to be likely
to cause harm to the child that lasts for
more than a short period”.)

In all other states and territories, it remains

open to interpretation.

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Is smacking an effective form of

discipline?

Generally, no. Research does not support

that physical punishment is effective in
achieving lasting behavioural change, nor
that it’s better than non-physical forms of
discipline.

In fact, the Australian Institute of Family

studies points to “high-quality” analysis by
American researchers Elizabeth Gershoff
and Andrew Grogan-Kaylor in 2016, which
found that children who are physically
punished are just as “likely to defy their
parents when they spank as comply with
them”.

Dr Vivienne Lewis, a clinical psychologist at

the University of Canberra, explained to
Mamamia‘s daily news podcast, The Quicky,
that one of the problems with smacking a
child is that it doesn’t actually teach them
what you want them to do.

“The child knows, obviously, you’re not

happy with something,” she said. “But they
don’t necessarily associate what they’re
actually doing with that smacking. So,
therefore, they don’t necessarily learn that’s
not the behaviour that the parent wants.”

How does smacking impact a child in

the short- and long term?

The Gershoff/Grogan-Kaylor research found

that corporal punishment (not abuse) is
associated with a number of negative
outcomes for the child. Among
them, antisocial behaviour, aggression,
mental health problems and negative
parent-child relationships.

According to Dr Lewis, one of the obvious

short-term consequences of smacking is
what it teaches the child about using force.

“Quite often when children do get smacked,

what they’re learning is [that] when you’re
annoyed with someone or when you’re
angry at somebody the [solution] is to lash
out,” she said. “Sometimes you see that
children will smack other children when
they’re not happy with their behaviour,
because they’ve learnt that that’s what Mum
and Dad do when they don’t like things.”

Listen: The Quicky chats to experts about

why it’s legal to hit children, but not adults.
And whether that should change.

The Quicky

nly People It's Still Legal To Hit? Why Ar

00:00 / 14:34

The long-term impacts of being smacked

aren’t clear cut. Research has found an
association between harsh physical
punishment (smacking, shoving and
pushing) and depression, anxiety and
increased vulnerability to substance abuse.
Of course, it’s not possible to prove one
directly causes the other — there are a lot of
other complicated factors that contribute to
those kinds of outcomes.

Still, Patrick Lenta, associate professor in the

Law Faculty at the University of Technology
Sydney, is among those who believe we
shouldn’t take the risk. He argues that
smacking should be illegal: “It violates
children’s rights. It poses a risk of
psychological harm to them. It’s just bad for
children,” he told Mamamia.

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Assoc. Prof Lenta argues that parents should

absolutely have a certain agency in how they
raise (and discipline) their children, but that
that comes with limitations: “they should
not raise their children in a way that sets
back their children’s basic interests —
including interests in psychological health
and integrity — and violates their children’s
rights.”

So, what should parents do instead of

smacking?

According to Dr Lewis, in order to enforce

appropriate behaviour, parents are much
better off verbally teaching a child what to
do.

“Talking about the rules, talking about

what’s acceptable and what’s not
acceptable,” she said.

“A lot of it comes down to early teaching of

prosocial behaviour [behaviour that benefits
others]. It’s trying to educate children along
the way as to what are the rules and what do
you want them to do. Because if you haven’t
got that foundation, then it’s a lot harder to
bring that in later on.”

Of course, there are times of high emotion

when reasoning and conversation just aren’t
going to cut it. What then?

“We all get frustrated, we all get fed up with

what’s going on, particularly when you’ve
had long stretches of looking after your
children and you’re tired, and all the rest of
it,” Dr Lewis said.

“The problem is when we leave [discipline]

until we’re really frustrated, that’s often
when we can lose our cool. So rather than a
light tap on the hand or something like that,
we’re much more likely to hit with force or
hit with objects. And that would be
considered abusive in a lot of ways.”

Dr Lewis advises parents and carers to,

instead, temporarily leave the situation and
then make it very clear to the child why
they’re angry or annoyed.

Sure, but what if smacking is still the

only thing that works?

If parents have exhausted all options — time

outs, naughty corners, removing privileges,
etc. — and nothing gets through, it could be
time to get some professional advice, Dr
Lewis said.

“It might be a good idea to actually seek

some help,” she said, “whether that’s some
help from a child psychologist or a
behaviour management person or even a
teacher at school, to learn some strategies
for trying to communicate more effectively
with your child, so that you’re not feeling like
absolutely every strategy you use doesn’t
work.”

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Top Comments

Guest a year ago

I willingly admit that I have smacked both of my

children. Several times occurred when they were
going through their biting phases and I had a choice
to smack them, make them cry out and in crying out
release their teeth from my body part that was being
bitten, or to try to pry their jaw open to stop them
biting me. Any other time has been when they have
been so deep in a temper tantrum that they were
about to harm themself and were unreachable
verbally and a slight smack on their bottom has
drawn them out enough to begin reasoning with
them. In all of these times my options were very
limited and I had to choose the option of least harm.

Guest a year ago

Do not criminalize parents on the advice of so called

experts. The same experts whose advice on parenting
seems to have had the consequences of a generation
of young children with depression, anxiety and
suicidal thoughts.

MORE COMMENTS

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