19 May 2004

Majority of public backs smacking ban, according to poll

A 19th century law permitting the smacking of children in the home should be redrawn to ban the practice, according to a Mori poll published today.

According to a new Mori public opinion survey for the Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance, 71% of those polled said they would support a change in the law to give children the same protection from being hit in the family home as that currently enjoyed by adults. Only 10% would oppose such a move.

At present, the 1860 law allowing "reasonable chastisement" means that children have less protection from being hit than adults.

Of the 2,004 adults surveyed by Mori, parents (74%), young adults under 24 years old (76%) and women (73%) were found to be the most likely to support law reform of this kind.

In a separate question, almost one third of people went further and agreed that "children should be given more legal protection from being hit than adults".

More than half of the public (56%) agreed that "it is wrong for someone to hit a child in their family", with only 31% disagreeing.

The Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance campaigns for equal protection reform and brings together more than 350 organisations including the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, Save the Children, NCH and the National Children’s Bureau.

NSPCC Director & Chief Executive Mary Marsh said that as children are "the weakest and most fragile" members of society, they deserved equal protection under the law.

"This shows that the general public supports sensible and fair modernisation of the law to give children equal protection. The current law giving children less protection dates back to the century before last and is clearly out of step with modern family values.

"In the 21st Century, equal protection must be every child’s right. It is vital that hitting children becomes as socially unacceptable as hitting anyone else, which means modernising the law, as at least ten other European countries have done successfully."

A New Clause is being tabled to the Children Bill, which is currently being considered by the House of Lords and later in the year by the House of Commons, to give children equal protection. The Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance is pressing for a free conscience vote on this amendment.

More than 180 MPs and Peers are now signed up to the aims of the Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance. The parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights and the House of Commons Health Select Committee have called for the law to change, as has the National Assembly for Wales. A 2003 Mori survey for the NSPCC showed that 45% of MPs support giving children equal protection (35% opposed the move).

Ten European countries already give children equal protection: Austria (1989); Croatia (1999); Cyprus (1994); Denmark (1997); Finland (1983); Germany (2000); Iceland (2003); Latvia (1998); Norway (1987); and Sweden (1979).

(gmcg)