Australia has joined seventeen (17) countries in setting down guidelines to prohibit corporal punishment of any kind in the home as well as at school, child care centers.

Australia brings the number of countries to 18 worldwide, which have enacted legislation explicitly prohibiting all corporal punishment of children, including in the home setting. The countries include: Sweden (1979), Finland (1983), Norway (1987), Austria (1989), Cyprus (1994), Denmark (1997), Latvia (1998), Croatia (1999), Bulgaria (2000), Italy (1996), Isreal (2000), Germany (2000), Iceland (2003), Romania (2004), Ukraine (2004) Hungary (2005) Greece (2007) and Australia (2007).

Chief Executive of the Australian Childhood Foundation, Dr Joe Tucci said parents should not have to hurt children to teach them a lesson. "We need to think about whether this is the sort of tool we want to continue to use - just because their parents used it, does that mean we have to. I think the answer is no."

Associate Professor Margaret Sims from Edith Cowan University said the guidelines were a starting point for parents who needed to be re-educated about how to discipline their children.

The Australian Childhood Foundation advises parents that smacking children teaches them that violence is acceptable in life. The ACF further emphasizes: "Physical punishment causes pain to stop the behavior. For example hitting a child with a hand or object," News Limited reports. ACF, also, emphasizes that physical punishment can have an adverse impact on children's emotional development and "teaches children that violence can be an acceptable way to solve problems." "Physical punishment can undermine a child's sense of love and security," the guidelines say. "They can often become anxious, fearful or rebellious."

In the United States corporal punishment of children in school is legal in twenty-two states, and "reasonable" corporal punishment of children by their parents/caretakers is legal in every state except Minnesota (Bitensky, 1998). Prohibition of corporal punishment in family day care, group homes/institutions, child care centers, and family foster care varies according to state laws (EPOCH-USA, 1999b).