Brits’ Proposal: Use a Hickory Stick, Go to Jail

A flat-handed swat on the bottom would still be legal, but parents would be prohibited from whacking children with a cane, belt or any other instrument under a government proposal released Tuesday.

Smacking a child on the head and boxing his ears also could become criminal offenses, with parents who did so subject to fines or jail sentences if the Health Department recommendations become law.

Regulating parental authority is a divisive issue among Britons, many of whom call Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government “a nanny state” for its perceived intrusion into the home, schools and workplace with health and safety regulations.

Children’s rights advocates welcomed the report as an important first step, saying all physical punishment is ineffective and should be banned. But the recommendations come on the heels of recent polls suggesting that a majority of parents believe they should have the right to spank their children and even want a return to teachers’ using corporal punishment, which was banned in state schools in 1986 and in private schools last year.

The government was forced to review its rules on physical punishment by the European Court of Human Rights, which, in a 1998 ruling, condemned Britain’s legal acceptance of the Victorian-era concept of “reasonable chastisement.”

In that case, the European court found a British father guilty of assault for having “repeatedly and severely” beaten his 9-year-old stepson with a cane. A British court previously had acquitted him after he used “reasonable chastisement” as a defense.

The United States has seen several cases of parents convicted of assault in the disciplining of their children; 27 states have banned the use of corporal punishment in schools. Several European countries, including Sweden, Norway and Denmark, have prohibited its use in school and at home.

The consultation paper released Tuesday is not yet a draft bill, and the government will take advice from interested parties before drawing up legislation. But it is an indication of how far the Blair government feels it can go.

Clearly eager to avoid criticism, however, the government bent over backward to assure parents that it isn’t planning to outlaw spanking “in a loving and caring” environment.

“We would not outlaw smacking,” said Junior Health Minister John Hutton. “We firmly believe in the rights of parents to make decisions about how they bring their children up. We’re trying to do this in a way which won’t criminalize ordinary, decent, caring parents.”

Paul Hetherington, a spokesman for Save the Children, said his organization welcomed “anything that is going to improve the human rights of children,” but he said the proposal falls short of offering them full protection. He also said it is unlikely to satisfy the demands of the EU court ruling.

“It is insulting to try to legislate what is and isn’t a smack, and it is confusing for all involved,” Hetherington said. “This doesn’t protect the child from smacking--it leaves it to the courts to decide afterwards.”

To parents who say the state shouldn’t intervene in family life, Hetherington counters that that argument was used 20 years ago to justify legal wife-beating--now widely held to be unacceptable violence.

“That’s where the term ‘rule of thumb’ comes from. A man used to be allowed to use a ruler as thick as his thumb,” he said. “We don’t do that anymore, just as we don’t flog people in the street or pillory them. We’re moving into the third millennium, and we want to move forward in our practices.”

Some Conservative Party members of Parliament and members of the public countered that children would be better served by focusing public attention on sexual abuse and other forms of violence rather than spanking, which they said should be up to a parent’s discretion.

“If a child is very unruly or attacks another child . . . there are occasions when physical punishment is right,” Julian Brazier, a Conservative in Parliament, said on Sky TV.

The government paper says that the nature of the physical punishment, its duration and physical and mental effects should be taken into account when determining whether a smack was “moderate and reasonable” or abusive. The “sex, age and state of health of the victim” should also be considered.

Alternative disciplinary tactics, such as using rewards or “grounding” the offending child, are recommended.

In a recent poll for the Times of London, 51% of the parents interviewed said they want to see a return to corporal punishment in schools, and a survey in the Daily Mail put the figure at 70%. Parents said they believe the behavior of children in schools has declined in the last decade. A government survey last year found that 88% of parents thought they should have the right to spank their children.

Children’s rights activists say the figure for those favoring corporal punishment in schools is down from 90% two years ago. They say a government campaign against smacking would bring that down further, just as campaigns against drunk driving have been effective in reducing offenses.