Opinion: The era of spanking is finally over

Years of research have shown that spanking children is ineffective and potentially harmful. These facts have led the American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend, in a new policy statement published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, that parents not spank, hit or slap their children. This statement from America's leading group of pediatricians, with 67,000 members, is an update to guidance they issued in 1988 that recommended parents "be encouraged and assisted in developing methods other than spanking" to discipline kids.