Campaigners have made a fresh call for laws to ban the smacking of children in England.
It comes as belief among young adults that forceful actions against children has grown stronger in recent years, according to a new poll.
Wales made any type of corporal punishment, including smacking, hitting, slapping and shaking, illegal in March 2022, while Scotland introduced a similar ban in November 2020.
But it is not completely outlawed in England and Northern Ireland.
According to the Children Act 2004, it is unlawful to hit your child, except where it is “reasonable punishment”, and this is judged on a case-by-case basis.
New polling for the NSPCC, carried out by YouGov, suggests around eight in 10 people (82 per cent) aged between 18 and 24 believe it is unacceptable for a parent to use force, however slight, against a child.
This is an increase from 64 per cent of young adults who thought it was unacceptable when polled in 2023.
Among parents specifically, the figures have remained high in recent years, with the latest polling showing 81 per cent felt this way, up slightly from 80 per cent last year and from 76 per cent in 2022.
YouGov surveyed 3,800 adults across England in July, of which 749 were parents with a child under 18 and 198 were aged 18 to 24 years old.
Of all adults surveyed, 71 per cent said they believe physical punishment against a child is unacceptable, up from 67 per cent in 2023.
Earlier this year leading health experts came together to urge parliamentarians to give children the “fundamental right to safety and protection” by backing a smacking ban.
The children’s doctors and psychiatrists said decades of research showed the “detrimental effects of physical punishment”.
On the latest figures, NSPCC chief executive Chris Sherwood said: “Parents and young people are telling us loud and clear that they don’t want physical punishment to be a part of anyone’s childhood.
“Parents know their children and what works best for them. It is therefore crucial their experiences and opinions are not ignored or undermined, but act as a wake-up call.
“As parliamentarians continue to debate the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we urge them to change the law to better reflect public attitudes to violence against children and ensure no childhood has to be tainted by physical punishment again.”
In June, as part of debate on the Bill, Conservative peer Lord Jackson of Peterborough warned that introducing a smacking ban in England would be “disproportionate and heavy-handed”.
He argued “reasonable chastisement” was harmless and calls to abolish it as a defence for punishing a child risked “criminalising good and caring parents, as well as overloading children’s services departments”.
But, in the wake of the murder of 10-year-old Sara Sharif in Woking in 2023, the UK’s four children’s commissioners jointly called for a wholesale smacking ban, describing the current situation where there is a legal defence in some nations as “outdated and morally repugnant”.
Sara’s father – jailed for life in December 2024 alongside her stepmother for the little girl’s murder – had claimed in a call to police after fleeing England that he “did legally punish” his daughter and that he “beat her up too much”.
The children’s commissioners insisted “loving, well-meaning” parents have no need to be concerned about a change in the law.
Lynn Perry, chief executive of Barnardo’s, said: “Violence against children is unacceptable – and yet children continue to have less legal protection against physical assault than adults. That cannot be right. This new data shows that most parents agree.
“Physical punishment like smacking is harmful to a child’s health and development, and there’s strong evidence that it influences their attitudes toward violence. At Barnardo’s, we see first-hand how vital it is for children to feel safe and nurtured by those around them and to develop positive, healthy relationships.
“We have long campaigned for a change in the law to give children equal protection from assault and continue to call for action. It’s time for all children to be legally protected from all physical punishment everywhere in the UK.”
Commenting on the poll, Professor Andrew Rowland, officer for child protection at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “This latest research makes it clear that physical punishment has no place in modern parenting.
“Health professionals stand firmly with parents and young people in recognising that physical punishment is not only outdated and unjust, but also harmful to children’s health and wellbeing.
“We urge the government to listen to parents, young people, health professionals and the wider public and to finally remove the outdated and unfair ‘reasonable punishment’ defence.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The landmark Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, a key part of our plan for change, represents the most transformative piece of child protection legislation in a generation, including wholesale reform of the children’s social care system and better information sharing between education, health, and social workers to stop vulnerable children falling through the cracks.
“While we are looking closely at the legal changes made in Wales and Scotland in relation to smacking, we have no plans to legislate at this stage.”
