JEDDAH: Smacking children with the aim of disciplining or making them study to get good marks is a misconception in society and amounts to violation of the child’s rights, a health official has said.

To curb this practice, the Committee for the Protection of Children Against Violence and Abuse at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Al-Ahsa has launched a campaign under the title, “Toward a safe Childhood.”

The campaign includes activities and events like lectures and programs aimed at protecting children against violence. The campaign revolves around the main question: “When and how should I smack my child for discipline?”

Dr. Ahmad Al Arfaj, the regional executive director of the Health Ministry in the Eastern Region, was quoted as saying by local media that the events are being held for the first time in the region and have achieved great success so far.

“This success encourages us to hold more of such awareness campaigns and activities for our community members,” he said.

“This special event comes following a string of complementary activities held with the aim of correcting many common misconceptions in our society about disciplining children and we seek to correct this attitude,” said Al-Arfaj.

Dr. Manal Al-Saif, head of the organizing committee of the event, said that local statistics on child abuse are typically gathered from hospital cases. “But we have our formal reporting methods which are unknown to many. There is no database to confirm the real statistics and the majority of child abuse cases do not reach hospitals, so we need to raise the awareness on this issue.”

She said a specialized awareness exhibition was recently held to cover all aspects of child protection; the event attracted the participation of doctors, psychologists and social workers who answered the questions of the public on child abuse and protection.

“We have noticed a lack of awareness among our children on the many forms and types of abuse, especially sexual abuse, where a child sees that touching and hugging and kissing by relatives is normal. Hence, we should focus on further increasing their knowledge and information about this,” said Al-Saif.