Smacking children should be illegal, parenting expert Dr Justin Coulson argues on ACA
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A parent hitting a child should be just as illegal as a husband hitting his wife or a boss kicking a dog, a parenting expert says.
dr. Justin Coulson, host of the Nine show Parental Guidance, argued Thursday night that “no one deserves to be spanked” and that includes children by their parents.
“I’m amazed how hard Australians will fight for their right to hit a child,” said Dr. Coulson to Nine’s A Current Affair interviewer Chris O’Keefe.
Education expert Dr. Justin Coulson has argued that parents hitting children is a form of violence that must be banned
“If I hit my wife because she…”deserved it” – and let’s face it, we all have a different threshold for what “deserves” (is)…when it comes to violence – if I hit my wife I will be sued and charged with family and domestic violence.
“If I kick my dog for barking too much, I’ll be charged with animal cruelty.
“And yet… let’s say I have a toddler, he’s two years old — I’m more than double my toddler’s height and six to 10 times my toddler’s weight — and it’s perfectly legal for me to hit my child because they… “deserved it”.’
dr. Coulson said a common argument used to support spanking is, “I was spanked as a kid, I ended up okay.”
However, he said there was no “snippet of evidence” that people looked better because they were beaten and a lot that they didn’t.
“The research evidence shows that regular hitting doubles, if not more, the risk of anxiety and depression in adulthood,” he said.
Dr Coulson, who was interviewed on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair by Chris O’Keefe, said children who don’t get spanked do better in life
He said children who were not spanked did better in school, were less likely to become addicted to drugs or alcohol, and were more “pro-social.”
Dr. Coulson believes that smacking breaks the relationship between a parent and child, while also setting a bad example.
He argued what it essentially says to children: ‘I love you, but I’m going to hurt you’.
Children follow their parents’ example, he argued, so they in turn will beat their children because it has been done to them.
“We can do better, our children deserve better,” he said.
Dr Coulson did not accept that it was okay to hit a child to prevent it from doing something dangerous.
According to Dr Coulson, smacking breaks the relationship between a parent and a child
“I don’t understand why we are so fascinated by hitting when our child is in danger,” he said.
“If your child runs towards the road, you don’t hit them, you pick them up and remove them from the road.”
He said it was the parents’ job to create a safe environment and ‘do it without violence’ and that this should not be seen as coddled or ‘wrapping them in cotton wool’.
dr. Coulson didn’t want parents to go to jail or be separated from their children if they hit, but to have support and interventions that show “better ways” for discipline.
“It makes families stronger, it makes children stronger and it makes our society stronger if we don’t use violence,” he said.
The move to ban smacking sparked heated discussions on another Channel Nine show earlier in the day.
Karl Stefanovic has furiously shot down plans to introduce a ban on Australian parents slapping their children. Professor Sophie Havighurst of the University of Melbourne supports the idea
Today, host Karl Stefanovic scornfully dismissed the arguments of University of Melbourne Professor Sophie Havighurst against hitting.
Prof Havighurst pointed to research from the Australian Child Abuse Study which found that 61 percent of young Aussies had been beaten at least four times in their lives.
“We now know that that doubles their chances of anxiety and depression,” said Prof. Havighurst.
But Stefanovic had none of it.
“As a parent, I don’t want to see any legislation around me anymore, my head explodes,” he said.
And the idea of parents being sued or going to court for hitting a child. I mean, come on, Sophie, please give me a break.’
In Australia it is currently legal for parents to spank their children, but several states have specific rules about this (stock image)
The professor said she did not seek consequences for those who physically punish their children, but wanted the law to change.
“Any kind of spanking or physical discipline has been shown to have a negative effect on children,” she said.
Sixty-three countries around the world have made physical punishment of children illegal, including New Zealand, Scotland and Sweden.
Prof Havighurst said there was no increase in the prosecution of parents who beat their children in any of those countries.
“We all have moments where we lose it… but in New Zealand, when they changed the law in 2007, they didn’t get an increase in what you’re afraid of,” she said.
“We don’t want the government and the police to become more involved in our family life, but we do know that changes in the law can help us use other parenting methods and that is very important.”
Australia’s former deputy medical director, Dr. Nick Coatsworth, also weighed in on the case, saying that parents should not hit their children, but there was no need to make the behavior illegal.
“My view is that governments should do their best to educate children and make sure they are safe,” he said.
“Criminalizing aspects of parenting, including those that are wrong, should not, in my view, be the direction the government should be taking.”
In Australia it is currently legal for parents to spank their children, but different states have specific rules about this.
In NSW, physical punishment must not be painful for more than a brief moment and children must not be hit on the head or neck.
In Victoria, there is no legislation around parents applying physical punishment to their children, while in several other states this should be considered ‘reasonable given the circumstances’.