But does smacking really violate the rights of the child? Mary Marsh, director of the NSPCC and novelist Anne Atkins explain their opposing views on the subject.

Anne Atkins, columnist and novelist

All smacking is not wrong. Children need discipline. They need incentives and they need disincentives. In a way it doesn't particularly matter what those disincentives are provided they are safe, kind, considered and fair.

I hit my children, not very often but it is an effective punishment and it is a kinder punishment than a lot of alternatives.

There's no evidence that smacking encourages a culture of violence

Anne Atkins

For instance screaming at them I think is an abuse of a child, sending a child to a room is a perfectly reasonable punishment, but it can be kinder, in fact our children sometimes opted for a smack if they were given the choice between two punishments.

What I think is a great shame about this is we're getting the idea that it doesn't matter that you lose your temper and smack. Smacking your child when you've lost your temper is as wrong as screaming at a child when you've lost your temper.

There's no evidence that smacking encourages a culture of violence against children. Children are protected from assault because chastisement has to be reasonable.

Why is it for instance that countries that love the child, include the child and bring the child up really well, like Ireland and Italy, haven't got this ridiculous law banning smacking?

Because people who value a disciplined environment for their child know that this can be a very effective form of discipline provided it's done in a judicial and considered way when you haven't lost your temper.

Mary Marsh, Director, NSPCC

Physically punishing children is dangerous. It's potentially harmful and it's really important that we get across to everybody that this is the case.

Children do have rights. It's extraordinary that they don't have the same rights as adults do.

They are the only people that aren't protected from assault because of the legal defence of reasonable chastisement and the danger is that parents who do hit their children regularly and harshly think it's alright because that's what the law says.

We're not talking about criminalising ordinary parents, that hasn't happened in any country

Mary Marsh, Director NSPCC

The law needs to be clear that physical punishment is wrong. The way in which you implement that law, as has been done in many other countries, is you recognise that being a parent is a difficult matter and that parents do need a lot of support.

Every country that has brought in such laws has done a lot of work on positive parenting advice, giving parents access to a lot of alternatives because what parents are saying to us very strongly is yes, we do hit our children but we don't like it, we think it's wrong and we want help finding alternatives and I think it's really important that we set a clear boundary.

In relation to child protection, all those professionals working in protecting children say unanimously that if we're going to be able to help those parents for whom hitting children is a habitual daily problem, this line needs to be drawn so that we can intervene effectively.

We're not talking about criminalising ordinary parents, that hasn't happened in any country.

Harsh discipline of children is associated very clearly with anti-social behaviour in adolescence, with criminal behaviour, we have to help parents to draw a line and they have to think very hard about crossing it.