Posts Tagged 0800whatsup

Survey: Kids say discipline is no excuse for hitting children

July 31, 2009

A survey of 5263 children has found the majority believe parents who are taken to court for hitting a child should not be let off if they say they were disciplining a child. 52 percent of children said they don’t think adults should be let off. 39 percent said adults should be let off and 9 percent were not sure.

“The views of those who participated in the survey on the child helpline 0800Whatsup, show a range of opinion among children and young people. The majority of comments were in favour of the current law and some callers stated explicitly that parents who hit children should themselves be disciplined for doing so,” said Murray Edridge, Chief Executive of Barnardos New Zealand.

“Many of those who believe that parents should have the right to hit children expressed several conditions applying to this right: hitting should not be excessive, alternatives to hitting should be used, and the use of hitting should be justified by the extent of the child’s misbehaviour. They also showed an awareness that discipline might not be the real motive for hitting.”

Mr Edridge said, “With voting papers going out in the next couple of days it is important for New Zealanders to take into account the views of children, given the affect of corporal punishment on them. It’s clear that a ‘yes’ vote is consistent with the aspirations of children to have legal protection from assault and to be able to live free from violence.”

“Similarly, with research showing there are positive trends away from the use of corporal punishment, a ‘yes’ vote is an expression of support for parents’ choice to not hit their children. Positive, non-violent, parenting is more effective than corporal punishment as well as supporting better long-term outcomes for children and for society. This is something we should all say ‘yes’ to!” he concluded.

The best support group ever

April 21, 2009

Yesvote.org.nz has been live less than two weeks now, but we’ve already managed to attract a fantastic list of supporters.

The list includes NGO’s, health care providers, blogs, professional organisations, private companies, religious organisations, concerned individuals, and others.

We update our list regularly, and we’d love you to register yourself and/or your organisation on our supporters page.

The striking thing about this list is that it is mainly composed of people who have to deal with the consequences of physical punishment, and thus have an interest in doing whatever they can to prevent it.  These are the ambulances at the bottom of the cliff who have built a fence at the top, and don’t want to see it torn down.

We’re interested in your own views and/or stories from your organisations that we can publish on yesvote.org.nz.  If you’d like to submit an item for publication, please contact us.

We’d also appreciate it if you linked to yesvote.org.nz from your own web sites and blogs – let’s get the word out as widely as possible among the best support group ever.

So far, the following organisations have recently registered their support for The Yes Vote Campaign 2009:

And the following individuals have also registered their support for the 2009 Campaign:

  • Catherine Fletcher
  • Rebecca Reveley
  • Margaret Smith

Plunket Barnardos Save the Children Unicef Jigsaw Ririki Parents CentrePaediatric Society Womens Refuge Epoch

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The bottom line is that we want to play by the rules. We appreciate your support, but please act ethically, thoughtfully, and within the law.

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