France to ban smacking for good despite claims of ‘interference’ in child education

The Telegraph 2 July 2019
Family First Comment: Apart from the idiocy of anti-smacking laws, the French one demands that couples who exchange marital vows will be reminded that “parental authority is exercised without physical or psychological violence”.
Yep – government tells you how to parent – on your wedding day!

France’s parliament will adopt a smacking ban on Tuesday – a largely symbolic gesture in a country where there is still widespread support for corporal punishment against children.

According to France’s Childhood Foundation, 85 percent of French parents admit to smacking their children.

If approved by the Senate, France will become the 56th state to prohibit smacking just days after Kosovo passed similar legislation.

The measure, which was adopted by MPs in November, is expected to easily pass France’s upper house of parliament despite some conservative and far-Right members warning such legislation fostered unwanted “interference” in family life.

Once written into the Civil Code, couples who exchange marital vows will be reminded that “parental authority is exercised without physical or psychological violence”.

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”, or what in the UK is known as “reasonable chastisement”.
READ MORE: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/02/france-ban-smacking-good-despite-claims-interference-child-education/