Questions and answers

Is is really legal to hurt children?

Yes! The law says that some adults can hit or hurt children to punish them. This often – but not always – means 'smacking' them. Read more about the law.

So why do Children are Unbeatable! think the law should change?

We want children and young people to be safe and to have their right to protection from violence to be respected.

Children are being hit now. The last major survey, about 10 years ago, showed that 75% of babies under 1 year old had been hit for a punishment.

This can be humiliating, painful and sometimes very dangerous. Making it illegal to hurt children would help to stop this. Read more about why we think the law should change.

Would a parent who just loses their temper and smacks their child once go to prison?

At the moment, it is illegal for adults to hit each other, but an adult who loses their temper and hits another adult once is very unlikely to go to prison. The same would be true for parents.

We don't want to change the law in order to punish lots of parents. We think parents should only be punished if it's the best thing for the child – and most of the time it probably wouldn't be. There are already lots of rules to make sure that this is what happens.

But, changing the law would make it easier to punish parents and other adults who do hurt children seriously.

What about parents' rights? Don't parents have a right to discipline their children how they choose to?

No, they don't. Nobody has the right to hurt another person. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the ChildThe United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is a set of rules about how countries in the United Nations should respect children's rights. says that children have the right to be fully protected from violence, including in the home. There are lots of better ways of punishing children which don't hurt them. Read more about positive parenting.

But smacking isn't real violence!

“Smacking” is a word that is used to make hitting children sound better. It is just as violent to hit a child as it is to hit an adult.

Some people's religion says that they have to smack their children, so how can you make it illegal?

It's true that some people do believe that their religion tells them to punish their children physically. However, this does not mean it should be legal. There are lots of things that some people believe their religion tells them to do which are illegal – for instace, attacking people who have different religions. These things are still illegal, and it is right that they are.

Many religious people also believe that it is wrong to hit children. The Children are Unbeatable! Alliance has members from all the major religions.

I was smacked and it never did me any harm.

That might be true, but it could do a lot of harm to another person. Hitting children can be painful and deeply humiliating.

Only a few people think hitting children should be illegal.

That's not true – the Children are Unbeatable! Alliance is a huge group of organisations, including the NSPCC and all the major children's charities. Read more about who we are.

And, even if not everyone agrees, the government should do the right thing and change the law to make sure that children's rights are respected and they are fully protected from violence.