Professor Frank Oberklaid OAM is the Director of The Royal Children’s Hospital Centre for Community Child Health and a Professor within the University of Melbourne, Department of Paediatrics.

The call from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians to scrap the legal defence for physically disciplining children is a timely one.

Children are the most vulnerable segment of our population, and we should be protecting them from violence, rather than condoning it. We have laws against hitting or smacking other adults; it is now time that we introduce laws to protect children from being smacked.

Research tells us that there is a strong correlation between children who are physically disciplined in childhood and those who will go on to develop health and mental health problems later in childhood and into adulthood. When smacking is used as a form of discipline children begin to understand that the way to handle anger or displeasure is to use violence, so there is a stronger chance they will grow up using violence as a way of settling disputes.

We also know that most parents only use smacking and other physical discipline as a punishment of last resort. However, there are lots of instances where parents get frustrated with their child and smack them, and even though they don’t necessarily intend to hurt them, they do; and as a result children every year are admitted to hospital with broken limbs or bruises.

It’s time we followed the lead of other countries around the world, including New Zealand, Denmark and Spain, and introduced these necessary laws, but this is just the first step. We also need to focus on helping parents learn about other, effective ways to discipline their children. There are far better strategies that parents can use to manage difficult and challenging behaviour, here are just a few:

• When a child is young, a parent will most commonly physically remove their child from dangerous or forbidden situations by distracting them with something interesting but harmless.
• When a child is a little older and learns what is dangerous or forbidden, parents can remind them of the rules with a matter-of-fact ‘no’ and more distraction. Any additional explanation needs to be delivered in simple terms.

Doing everything we can to support children to ensure they have the best start in life is essential for their wellbeing, the wellbeing of their family and, ultimately, the wellbeing of the entire country.