Hannah+Opinion+Writing

Smacking Should Not Be Allowed__//**  Every child around the world is disciplined at some point in their childhood, each of them punished in a different way. Many of these children are smacked. A smack is defined as ‘t o strike sharply and with a loud noise’. In June 2007 Sue Bradford introduced the no smacking bill. There is now a referendum on whether smacking should be a criminal offence in New Zealand or whether it shouldn’t. I believe that it should be illegal to smack your child/ren for the following reasons.
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Firstly, a child can easily take a smack the wrong leading to the child using violence against their siblings and classmates. If this happens there is the chance that the child can be left without friends and may get into trouble on a regular basis. This could effect their education because of having a low self esteem.

Furthermore why should it be that kids are allowed to be smacked and adults aren’t? Kids deserve the same violence protection as an adult. Kids are told off for deliberately smacking adults and yet adults deliberately smack their children and nothing is done about it. If smacking was allowed it would be allowing children to be legally assaulted.

Finally, smacking may be effective and the parents may become ‘addicted’ to smacking their children and this could lead to bruising and beating the child. When the parents are taken to court they would be able to use that they are allowed to smack as a defence. If this happens parents might end up getting off the charges that they should be sentenced to.

Overall, I believe that children should have the same legal protection as adults. I’m sure that they wouldn’t legalise assaulting adults so why legalise assaulting children. What is it that is so much better about adults that they should have legal protection and kids shouldn’t? A simple rule like being able to smack may lead to worse form’s of child abuse. So in conclusion I believe that smacking should stay illegal.