Are parents still able to hit their children? Yes - although I believethat the Government would prefer that we use less emotive terms likephysical punishment, or the legal term reasonable punishment.
Does that mean that physical punishment of a child has to be reasonable,or that physical punishment of a child is reasonable? That's the gist ofthe debate. During the passage of the Children Act 2004, the law waschanged to remove the defence of reasonable chastisement from adults whocause grievous or actual bodily harm when hitting children. That meanssection 58 allows parents and others to continue to use physicalpunishment to the level of common assault.
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