Amazon Petition - Press Release

PLEASE NOTE: THIS CAMPAIGN HAS NOW BEEN HANDED OVER TO THE U.S ALLIANCE TO END THE HITTING OF CHILDREN



PRESS RELEASE: 

PETITION TO AMAZON - REFUSE TO CARRY BOOKS THAT 

ADVOCATE THE PHYSICAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN.

Thousands Sign, Many Notable Signatories, Amazon Not Responding.

At the end of August 2011 I began a petition campaign to ask Amazon not to stock books which advocate the physical abuse of children. Currently there are several 'parenting manuals' available to buy on Amazon (.com and .co.uk) that advise parents to train and condition their children into obedience using rods, paddles, or other similar implements. The books advise using these methods on small children and even babies under the age of one. Amazon has a policy not to carry 'offensive' material and the petition urges Amazon to acknowledge that this treatment of children is 'offensive'.

One of the books, To Train up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl, has been in the media spotlight in the past fortnight, due to an article in the New York Times, and many subsequent articles in the world press. Most of the articles focus on the books and their methods being linked to the deaths of three children in the United States. Here is the New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/us/deaths-put-focus-on-pastors-advocacy-of-spanking.html?pagewanted=all. The article, and several others, included a link to my petition.

Amazon has so far made no response to the petition.

The petition now has 7292 signatures at the time of writing, and numbers are constantly rising. There are several notable signatories, leading experts, campaigners and commentators on the issues of child development, corporal punishment, religious child maltreatment and violence against children. They include:

• Elizabeth Gershoff, Ph.D, Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin
• Jordan Riak, Founder and Executive Director of Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education
• Margarita Cala, M.D., Attending Psychiatrist, NYU School of Medicine
• Frank Schaeffer, author, film director, screenwriter, activist: www.frankschaeffer.com
• Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio
• Janet Heimlich, author of Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment
• Samuel Martin, biblical scholar and author of Thy Rod and Staff They Comfort Me: Christians and the Spanking Controversy
• James C. Talbot, author of The Road to Positive Discipline, A Parent's Guide
• Al Crowell, Board member of Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education for ten years, Co-author of pamphlet The Nonviolent Christian Parent: Raising Children with Love, Limits, and Wisdom
• Michael Goldfield, Child Advocate and Board member of Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education
• Hermana Linda, Campaigner, whynottrainachild.com

You can view the petition at:
http://www.change.org/petitions/jeff-bezos-amazon-ceo-refuse-to-carry-books-which-advocate-the-physical-abuse-of-children

About Milli Hill, Petition Organiser
I am a UK based mother, therapist and writer, and in spite of being described by the New York Times as a 'conservative Christian', I am not religious - I am entirely motivated by child protection. Please get in touch with me if you have any further questions.

In the meantime, you may like to read my original blog post on this issue: http://mamamule.blogspot.com/2011/08/amazon-we-find-child-abuse-offensive.html