The Smacking of Children should be banned by Law

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I firmly believe that the smacking of children should be banned by law. For me, there is no real debate in this matter.

Many parents abuse the right to smack their children, which can lead to severe consequences. Children grow up copying and learning from their parents from a young age. If parents drink and smoke, their children may want to copy them. If parents smack, their children will think that it is acceptable to be violent and will be more likely to smack their own children in the future.

Surely the main consideration in this case is that, if parents choose to smack their children they are damaging them, not always physically but definitely psychologically. I don?t believe that smacking is in any way acceptable, as the smallest bit of violence against children could cause them to use it themselves when they are older.

Today, the law states that parents are allowed to hit their children as long as they leave no mark, graze or bruise. There are constantly cases in the media, involving the abuse of the right to smack children in Northern Ireland. This is because parents have been abusing this right more frequently in the past couple of years. I believe the reason for this is that most children have been exposed to violence in their homes, which has led them to be violent in their future. It is a vicious circle. Also, by beating children we are telling them that it is acceptable to smack, which will create more violence in the future, therefore making the matter worse. In dealing with this issue can we ignore the fact that there is no debatable reason why it shouldn?t be made illegal?

In everyday life, violence doesn?t need to be used to control children?s behaviour. Most parents say that they use smacking as a way of controlling their children when they are disobedient. For example, if a child kept reaching for an open fire even when they are repeatedly told not to by the parent, the parent would eventually resort to smacking the child. I think the better alternative to this situation would be to buy a fire guard. This way, the child would learn that the fire is out of bounds in a non-violent way.

I believe smacking can affect children when they become adults in two ways. They could disagree with smacking their own children because they didn?

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