CYFS and anti-smacking bill

Reflecting on the anti-smacking bill, supporters of it have claimed that the Police won’t prosecute parents just for lightly smacking their kids if they misbehave. Now this might be true, but what there hasn’t been much focus on is how CYFS will use the new law.

There has been a great deal of evidence that already CYFS has a very heavy handed approach to parents, even a bullying approach where they threaten to remove custody if you challenge their wishes,

Now imagine the situation once this bill is passed. CYFS could use this provision to act against any parent or family who smacks a child, no matter how minor or justified. Imagine how it might be used in custody disputes – one could use it against the other parent, even if you had both agreed to it.

So yes if the law is changed, you won’t see a lot of parents going to jail for smacking their children, but you might see a lot of them get done over by CYFS, who no doubt next year will announce theyneed a huge budget increase to cope with the extra workload.