Back in 1994 I did some software programming for a 900 number spanking hotline that charged $2.50 a minute for callers to listen to young boys and girls being spanked.

There was an interactive component so that you could choose whether the spankee was your son, daughter, a strange waif, whatever; and whether the spanker was a father, mother, teacher, policeman, you yourself, etc. I believe these callers had no children and were able to channel their particular brand of sickness into non-violent fantasies.

Unfortunately, there are people out there who actually believe that spanking is good for their children and find myriad occasions to satisfy their lust for inflicting pain on others, preferably those who can't complain or fight back.

I believe the least government is the best government. If an adult wants to smoke marijuana and he doesn't bother anyone then it's none of the government's business. Normally I would say it's none of the state's business on how we rear our children; however, when young children are abused, even police cannot interfere unless they are practically killed.

Physical Abuse Does Not Teach Good Behavior

The reason I am in favor of government banning spanking (1) is because so many parents think that it is not only a good thing but that it works. They are wrong. Simply read the reaction to this story of those who say it is their right to beat their children all they want. Yes, right now you have the right to spank your kids all you want. But morally, psychologically and pragmatically it is wrong. Physical abuse does not teach your children good behaviour anymore than sticking a dog's nose in urine trains it to be better behaved. It only makes for badly socialized dogs, which is why we have over 14,000 dog bites a day in this country, because of idiots bringing up dogs who don't know any better. By letting parents treat their children like junkyard dogs we are bringing up junkyard children who then perpetuate their violence on their own children.

Here are a few reactions: "if it think my child needs to be spanked it is none of their business," "spanking is something we used when the occasion warranted it. For example: running into the street, running with scissors, hitting another child," (oh yeah, teach your child that violence should never be used by whacking him) "playing with light sockets, cutting their own hair." I personally know parents who spank their children for wetting their bed. That will certainly teach their kidneys.

This has nothing to do with government telling parents how to raise their family. Raise them as babbling monkeys for all I care, just don't spank them, they are not your personal punching bags. It took thousands of years to finally teach men that women are not their personal property and cannot be beaten just to discipline them. We have yet to teach the majority of our countrymen how uncivilized they still are in regard to the rearing of children. I'm sure there are still men who believe that beating their wives is good for the wife. "It's for their own good." Yeah, right.

If you think spanking is good for young children, you are wrong:

Health SciTech,
2007,
Study Reveals Who Gets Spanked

Children in homes full of books and educational games are less likely to get spanked, new research shows. Recent studies have found that corporal punishment can cause significant antisocial behavioral, such as lying, cheating, and hitting, in children as they grow older.

Children before the age of 6 cannot yet form concepts, so what do you think you teach when you spank a child? I was spanked often as a child, and it did not change my behaviour at all, it only increased the frequency of getting spanked. But unlike all other parents who now spank their children simply because they were abused as children, I refused to spank either of my two boys. Interestingly, since I never spanked them but rather disciplined them with example, love and verbal instruction, they never ran into traffic, ran with scissors, or did anything that required a vicious beating to teach them otherwise.

Normally we should not need to have the government tell us that spanking is wrong if all parents actually believed that. For instance, we do not have any laws that say it is wrong for you to hang your children by their thumbs since 99.999% of parents actually know that is wrong. But because we have so many parents that actually believe it is OK to beat their kids, it is time to teach them otherwise.

The Joy of Beating the Shit Out of Kids

I have seen parents whaling the shit out of their kids and all I could do was yell at the parent to stop. With the law, any decent human being can now have that parent arrested and hopefully stop the abuse of that child. Perhaps in time, when enough adults understand that children are not their property, but are human beings, then we wouldn't need these kinds of laws.

We should not need laws to tell us that it's wrong to drive and drink. But because there are so many idiots out there, the only way to protect society is to actually arrest those people. At one time in this country, drunk drivers were simply slapped on the wrist, even if they killed someone on the road. Ooops, sorry.

There are Muslims living in this country who actually believe they have the right to physically abuse their servants and female members of their household. Fortunately we have laws to disabuse them of this notion. We need similar laws to protect children.

There are African parents who mutilate their daughter's genitalia because it is their tradition and they believe America has no right to interfere with what they do with their own daughters. Fortunately we have a federal law (since 1996) to disabuse them of that notion.

There are two possible positions on this matter:

1) If you're conservative and you believe that mothers do not have a right to do whatever they what they want with an unborn child and you want the law to protect that unborn child, by what logic do you grant that same mother the right to do whatever she wants with a 3 year old?
2) If you're liberal and you're abhorred by the notion that American women spanked a few adult Muslim bottoms at Abu Ghraib and you want the law to protect those Muslims, by what logic are you not equally appalled at someone spanking the bottoms of defenseless children?

I think the proposed legislation does not go far enough: it should at least ban spanking of any child under 6 years old. I think by that time, a child is in school and a teacher could observe any marks of abuse and report it. I would hope that one day all parents will realize that spanking a child at any age is more to satisfy the violent urges in the parent than for any pedagogic purpose.

We don't need a nanny state. We do not need laws that keep idiots from hurting themselves. Let Darwin take care of them. However, very young children have no one to protect them from idiot parents.

Related:
CHILD CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: SPANKING Legal status of spanking. As of 2003-APR-15, 28 states in the U.S. had banned corporal punishments in schools. The most recent anti-spanking bill was signed by Governor Minner in Delaware on 2003-APR. 9

The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) reported an estimated 1,400 child fatalities in 2002. This translates to a rate of 1.98 children per 100,000 children in the general population. NCANDS defines "child fatality" as the death of a child caused by an injury resulting from abuse or neglect, or where abuse or neglect were contributing factors. Many researchers and practitioners believe child fatalities due to abuse and neglect are underreported.

Newsweek, Taboo: Spanking Smackdown

A new study of more than 2,000 parents in the journal Clinical Pediatrics found fewer than 9 percent explicitly admit to spanking their kids ages 2 to 11... [snip] This is a big change in social attitudes froma few decades ago: national surveys in 1975 and 1985 found that more than 90 percent of parents spanked their 3-year-olds. In 1988, two thirds of mothers with kids under 6 said they routinely hit their child three times a week. By the 1990s, however, it was widely agreed in the medical community that corporal punishment doesn't work, is less effective than other discipline techniques and has potentially harmful side effects.

By having a spanking ban, parents who beat their children can now be reported and when a child dies of that abuse, the police will have prior reports to help investigate and prosecute those deaths more efficaciously.

"OK, Bernie," you'll ask, "but how will I relieve my sadistic urges if I can't take it out on defenseless children?" Well, for you my psychotic friend, I suggest you go over and whack the crap out of this annoying frog.

Adults spanking each other is fine:

Click on any panel for a larger view.

1. Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z cover, 2. spank, 3. Virginie gets spanked,
4. Jenny about to get spanked, 5. Someone is Going to Get Spanked, 6. virgin spanking 2,
7. Sisterly Spanking time!, 8. Lex's birthday spanking, 9. OLD-FASHIONED MOTHER IN CHURCH 1

Disclaimer: All pictures are found on Flickr and are © to Flickr itself and to their uploaders. Flickr Mosaic made with Mosaic Maker.

Update Sep 2013

Sadly, in a recent Harris Online Poll, the majority of Americans still mistakenly believe spanking kids is ok:

Harris Interactive, 26 Sep 2013, Four in Five Americans Believe Parents Spanking Their Children is Sometimes Appropriate

To spank or not to spank? It's an age old question that every parent must face. Some parents may start off with the notion that "I will never spank my child!" - but does that hold up? Not really, as eight in ten Americans (81%) say that parents spanking their children is sometimes appropriate, while 19% believe it is never appropriate. Among those with a child in the household, almost eight in ten (78%) believe that spanking is sometimes appropriate. Interestingly, in 1995 (the last time The Harris Poll asked this question) 87% of Americans believed that spanking was sometimes appropriate - so this has gone down slightly.

ENDNOTES

(1):

LA Times, A Spanking Ban: Are We Gonna Get It?

SACRAMENTO — Assemblywoman Sally Lieber hit a nerve when she mused publicly this week about making it illegal for parents to strike children younger than 4.

...

Lieber said she would introduce a bill next week to make California the first state to make the hitting of a toddler or baby a crime. Language was still being drafted, but Lieber was considering making a violation a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in county jail.

"It would get us out of the ridiculous situation of having our law saying there's justifiable beating of children," Lieber said, "in the midst of a society where we say we value children and protect them."