RESOLUTION: On balance, spanking children is generally an unacceptable form of corporal punishment.
POSITION: Pro
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Preface
P1: Parental punishments which set out to solve poor behaviour but fail to solve poor behaviour, ought to be stopped.
P2:Spanking children doesn't solve poor behaviour.
C1: Spanking ought to be stopped.
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P1: Parental punishments, which set out to solve poor behaviour but do more harm than good, ought to be stopped.
P2: Spanking children does more harm than good.
C1: Spanking ought to be stopped.
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A1. The effects of Spanking on the developing mind
According to one study [
1] done at Harvard University, spanking of a child leads to alterations in their brain and is equivalent to severe maltreatment. It can also increase their perception of threats. The brain shows a similar response when a child is spanked as when sexual, physical, or psychological abuse is inflicted. So in terms of the impact and severity, it’s much the same.
Children who are spanked are more likely to experience:
These findings were compiled over five decades of research on children by the University of Texas; such findings have been consistent with other studies [
3]. In all of them, spanking children has been shown to be overwhelmingly detrimental to their mental and emotional development.
The researchers used an MRI scan to look into the brains of 147 children. Some of them were spanked in their early years and some of them weren’t. Then the researchers looked at photos of various facial responses, which were positive, negative, and neutral. Children who were spanked by their parents had more activity in the brain responsible for emotional control and threat detection. They even showed higher responses to those expressions not considered threatening.
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A2. Major Health organisations
Every major health organization has come out against spanking — The American Academy of Pediatrics has made it very obvious what their stance is on spanking children [
4].
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- Repeated use of corporal punishment may lead to aggressive behavior and altercations between parent and child and may negatively affect the parent-child relationship.
- Corporal punishment is associated with increased aggression in preschool and school-aged children.
- Experiencing corporal punishment makes it more, not less, likely that children will be defiant and aggressive in the future.
- Corporal punishment is associated with an increased risk of mental health disorders and cognition problems.
- The risk of harsh punishment is increased when the family is experiencing stressors, such as family economic challenges, mental health problems, intimate partner violence, or substance abuse.
- Spanking alone is associated with adverse outcomes, and these outcomes are similar to those in children who experience physical abuse.
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Conclusion
- Every major health organisation has come out against spanking children.
- Spanking children leads children to be more suspicious of strangers and family alike.
- Spanking does not solve poor behaviour.
- Spanking increases one's likelihood of experiencing mental health problems later in life.
Implicit concession + full forfeiture.
If I were you, I wouldnt burden myself with proof. Its not up to science to prove that spanking doesnt work. It is up to spankers to prove that spanking does work. Billions of children were spanked. The fact that spankers cant find one example of spanking actually benefiting the child is enough to make their entire case invalid.
If science were to show spanking does not fix the problems it purports to be able to solve—if spanking causes more harm than good, I would then consider it an act which may need to be considered child abuse. Every child is different, but we must look to safeguard the maximum number of children as we possibly can to enable them to grow up as mentally sound as realistically achievable.
spanking kids with un-directional money is much bigger violence
Define "unacceptable"
RM
Are you saying spanking is not sadistic? Lets see the definitions.
Sadism is basically when someone gains sexual pleasure from pain or humiliation of others.
Americans enjoy humiliating their children so much that they even spank them in public, and in online videos and in front of other children and in schools.
Americans obviously gain pleasure from childs pain.
But is the pleasure sexual? I would say it probably is. It is derived from violence, and it has been proven that violence and sadism are linked.
Do you gain pleasure from causing pain to your children?
Like most of the uneducated americans, you dont want to improve yourself. You want to prove that others are as bad as you. Also, most of americans when searching for porn, search for incest daughter porn or hentai. I am not saying you do this, I didnt look at your browsing history. But here you are, trying to justify these things. One must wonder...whats in it for you?
You are the one with debates about letting children watch porn, if I were you I'd back away suggesting things that anyone can see is false about me, you already look like a prick.
The fact you make it sexual says more about you than anyone doing it.
Who said I think it's okay lol.
I just noticed a ridiculous attack when Asians spank their children harder and far more often than Americans do.
Why don't you debate it then if you think its ok because of culture?
RM
Are you honestly trying to justify american sadism towards children by using asian sadism towards children? There doesnt seem to be any logic there. Since you are trying to justify it, I wonder if you engage in such sadism yourself. Are you one of those americans who have daughter kink?
Spanking has been most integral to Asian cultures. Nice try at a jibe, moron.
Well, we will see why someone may think its acceptable when someone accepts the debate i suppose!
I dont understand why would someone want to spank a child. Is the person turned on by it? Is it one of those american incest fetishes? America is a weird country.