( dpa ) - More than one in five Hong Kong children are smacked or beaten at home by their parents, according to a survey published Monday.
Twenty-one per cent of nearly 6,000 primary and secondary school children interviewed in the former British colony said their parents used corporal punishment at home, the South China Morning Post reported.
The survey by the University of Hong Kong, working with the United Nations Childrens Fund, or UNICEF, has fuelled calls for corporal punishment to be banned in the city of 6.9 million.
"Corporal punishment has already been banned in schools. Why can't we outlaw it at home as well?" the newspaper quoted Hong Kong UNICEF committee member Matthew Mo as saying.
There is no law against smacking or beating children at home. Child welfare groups also want to see a law against leaving children home alone, a regular phenomenon in Hong Kong.