There is a growing debate regarding the punishment of the parents whose children break the law. While some argue in favor for this idea, others believe it is the children who should take the responsibilities of their action. Personally, I am of the opinion that parents have to be responsible for their children’s violations, as there is no denying that they did not take part in a particular violation, yet it is morally incorrect to punish kids for any valid reasons.
On one hand, people might debate stating that children who violated the law should be judged since they were the ones who did the action, not their parents. Most of the time, children violate rules, such as damage of someone’s owning or simply implementing mobile phones during examinations, by themselves, which in turn leads to misunderstandings and arguments between the kids and victims. Parents, however, are not aware of these activities being far from their kids, which does not necessarily mean they are responsible for their kids because every individual should be legally judged regardless of their age, nation, and etc. Another reason in support of this idea would be the fact that children should learn lessons from their mistakes, meaning they should be punished in a proper way in order for them to understand that violations lead to a punishment, thereby decreasing their desire to break the laws once again in the future. For example, many students, nowadays, are being caught using leaked answers of their exam papers, which is a clear violation of the law that can lead to unfairly obtaining a high score negatively affecting others’ scores. In this particular situation, the student should be punished which will teach not only him not to opt for those ways, but also others to be aware of these punishments. For these reasons, it is widely recommended to punish the children themselves rather than their parents.
However, these arguments notwithstanding, there is another point of view on this matter. Admittedly, it is totally true that custodial parents did not participate in the process of violation; nevertheless, the parents should always be punished, if their kids are underaged. In many contemporary countries, the civil constitution clearly states that children who are not legally adults should not be punished for any violations and it is the parents who have to take responsibility after their kids. This fact is supported by the human rights department of the United Nations in which they give a clear answer for this question by giving the same reasons as the one mentioned above. Another compelling argument would be the ethical side of this action – punishing children. It is totally incorrect ethically to punish little kids for violating any kind of a law due to their age, maturity, intelligence, and awareness. They lack all those characteristics. Therefore, I wholeheartedly believe that children should not carry any responsibilities for violating actions done by them.
In conclusion, although some people believe children should always take responsibilities for themselves, I, personally, argue in favor of my idea which is about not punishing little human beings, but rather teach them not to do so through social media.