France to ban smacking of children for good

France has become the 56th country in the world to outlaw smacking and other similar forms of violence towards children, after a unanimous parliament vote.

The bill outlaws all “educational, ordinary violence”, primarily that committed by parents towards their children.

France’s penal code already bans violence against children.  But under a 19th-century legal loophole, allowances have until now been made for parents’ “disciplining” of children as part of “ordinary everyday violence”,

According to France’s la Fondation Pour L’Enfance, the Childhood Foundation, 85 percent of French parents admit to smacking their children.

It now forms part of legal code le Code Civil, and reads: “parental authority may be exerted without physical or psychological violence”.

The phrase will now be included in articles read at local Mairies during marriage ceremonies, and will also appear on the first page of a child’s national health records.

Sweden was the first to outlaw smacking, in 1979.

The vote comes ahead of a report on the state of childhood educational violence in France, which is also expected to include recommendations for parents.

Via The Local France / The Daily Telegraph