This law will be Named Person on steroids
FROM Saturday, any parent or carer in Scotland who uses physical discipline with their children – a smack on the bottom or a tap on the hand –will be liable to prosecution for assault as contentious antismacking legislation comes into force.
The Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Act 2019, ratified in November last year, removes a defence of “reasonable chastisement” from law. With its removal, even the mildest, most trifling physical discipline is a crime.
We can expect to see much hand-wringing by activists who pushed for a smacking ban this weekend. They argued that the removal of reasonable chastisement would bring “equal protection” to children from assault. This argument was – and is – completely unfounded. The smacking ban has more to do with punishing parents than preventing the mistreatment of children.
Discouraging smacking is fine. Many parents choose not to use it. But should we really be dragging parents to court for using light discipline?
The activists pushing for a ban won’t like this characterisation. They claim that smacking does great harm to children. However, during the passage of the smacking law through Holyrood, experts stressed that there is no reliable scientific evidence whatsoever to suggest that mild physical discipline does any harm to a child.
A smacking ban simply isn’t necessary.
Evidence from other countries shows that those most affected by lowering the bar for intervention of the authorities into family life are BAME communities and immigrants, simply because they are more likely to be in contact with services.
From this weekend, parents who smack will be committing an offence. As a sociologist, I’m troubled about what this will mean for families and communities across Scotland. The biggest concern I have is a huge lack of awareness of the new law.
It is highly likely that many parents in Scotland will simply have no idea that smacking is to be illegal. In the last 12 months since the smacking ban was passed, the Scottish Government has carried out no public awareness-raising about the change in the law.
Other major cultural changes like the smoking ban were heralded through TV and radio adverts, posters and public notices. But parents in Scotland are supposed to have a sixth sense when it comes to the ban on smacking. The first some parents will hear of the ban will be when they answer the phone to a social worker, or answer the door to a police officer, after being reported for using physical discipline.
This isn’t an exaggeration. Under the new law, parents who use even the mildest forms of physical punishment can expect social work intervention. A document sent to local authorities at the end of August confirms that: “When [social work] concerns fall short of the significant harm threshold”, this must not stop the provision of “coordinated support”.
The document also confirms that children will be added to a new “vulnerable persons” database if a parent has been reprimanded for smacking – even when no prosecution has occurred. This information can be shared with other, partner agencies without the consent of parents.
Activists and politicians who supported this change in the law will not be so triumphant when the horror stories start to emerge: false allegations of smacking by parents trying to get one over on each other; police and social work intervention in perfectly good families; and overburdened child protection professionals struggling to identify at-risk children.
The disastrous Named Person scheme was hated by parents because it was introduced under the radar and led to unwarranted meddling in family life. The smacking ban will be Named Person on steroids.