France

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France is a country in Europe with a population of about 63 million. Its official language is French.

Spanking in France

From antiquity to modernism, spanking was as popular in France as in the rest of Europe, and its use as a parenting tool greatly reduced in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Nonabusive spanking isn't illegal in France however, as in Sweden, Germany and other European countries. On 23 December 2009, Paris MP and paediatrician Edwige Antier has proposed a bill which would prohibit corporal punishment, including spanking of children.

The French gave the world a special spanking implement: the martinet.

Spanking poll 2006/2007

An investigation of the Union des familles en Europe carried out in 2006/2007 among 685 grandparents, 856 parents and 776 children in France gave the following results:

95% of the grandparents, 95% of the parents and 96% of the children got spanked. The spankings came mainly from their parents. Non-parental spanking has decreased over the last three generations: 52% of the grandparents (58% boys, 46% girls), 39% of the parents (50% boys, 27% girls) and 34% of the children (37% boys, 30% girls) have been spanked by a third party, at school, or other family members.

62% (grandparents), 64% (parents) and 55% (children) found that the spankings were (largely) deserved (this increased to over 60% among older children). 34% of grandparents, 25% of parents and 22% of children feel they were punished too much; 7% of grandparents, 9% of parents and 9% children feel that they have been punished not enough.

64% of the children intend to raise their own children as they were, 22% less severe, 14% more severe (but 18% of older children would raise their children more severely). 26% of the children want more spankings in education. Children that would be less severe in their education, would not ban all spanking, but would give less spankings on the bare bottom (many notes), not use the hairbrush or martinet, or limit the number of strokes.

27%, 34% and 37% of the grandparents, parents and children want to forbid corporal punishment by law. But even these often want to make a difference between corporal punishment and “a spanking” (meaning hand-spanking), which is not considered a corporal punishment.