By Dan Satherley
A book written by Christian fundamentalists from the US that teaches parents how to beat their children could be banned.
The book, To Train Up A Child, is being investigated by Internal Affairs after a complaint was made last week.
The book promotes using weapons, thumping, smacking, hair pulling and even sitting on them in order to get children to obey – and insists the "conditioning" must cause physical pain.
Whitcoulls has removed the book from their website, but it is still available to purchase elsewhere.
The complaint was laid by an American child abuse victim, who said it was "irresponsible" to sell it in a country with such a high rate of child abuse.
"I'm not one to prevent books from being sold, but I think an instruction manual on how to enact violence on your child is a completely different story," he told Stuff.
The book could be banned outright, restricted or referred to the human rights or children's commissioners.
On Amazon.com, To Train Up A Child has almost twice as many one-star ratings than five-stars.
Written by Michael and Debi Pearl, the book has been linked to deaths of at least children in the US at the hands of their parents.
In 2010, a California couple was charged with murder and torture after beating their daughter to death with a 15-inch length of plastic. The abuse was sparked when the seven-year-old mispronounced a word in a children's story about a frog and a toad.
In 2006, a devotee of the book's authors suffocated their four-year-old with tight blankets after beating him with a plumbing line.
The book recommends not disciplining children in front of others, "even at church – nosy neighbours might call social workers".
Plumbing tools are listed as "real attention getters", and should be left around the house as a deterrent to bad behaviour.
The authors deny their book is a manual for child abuse, and based on "Amish" principles.
"Over 1,000,000 parents have applied these Biblical principles with joyful results," they said in a statement released after the seven-year-old's death last year.
The Perls have no qualifications in child development.
The book has made unlikely allies of former Green MP Sue Bradford, architect of the so-called 'anti-smacking law', and Bob McCoskrie, director of Family First which wants the law overturned.
Mr McCoskrie says a "light smack on the hand or the bottom" is fine, but the more extreme methods in the book were "completely wrong".
3 News