Ban on smacking ‘would improve parenting skills’

(BBC): Parents should be banned from smacking their children, the deputy head of the Council of Europe has said. Maud de Boer-Buquicchio said a ban on physical chastisement would improve parenting skills. Parents at present can smack their children for the purposes of "reasonable" punishment. Attempts by some MPs and charities to introduce an all-out ban on smacking have so far failed. Smacking is not permitted in schools in the UK. Ms de Boer-Buquicchio, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, has now joined the debate to express her view that it is not wrong for the state to interfere over this aspect of family life.

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