A UK charity is launching a campaign asking retailers to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to parents smacking their children.

The NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) is calling on shops to do more to prevent parents from losing control of their children and then hitting them.

Chris Cloke, head of child protection awareness at the NSPCC, said the charity's aim was to support parents.

He told the BBC: "We know that shopping, like parenting in general, can be very, very stressful and therefore if the shop assistant can say can we support you in some way, can we help you with your shopping, can we look after your child, that would be helpful towards the parents.

"And we believe that parents will benefit from this, that children will benefit from that and we also believe it makes good economic sense for the shops too."

NSPCC also suggested that shops should display leaflets on how to deal with difficult behaviour such as tantrums, training staff to support those who are struggling, and providing play areas for children.

A survey conducted for the NSPCC revealed that 40 per cent of the adults questioned would rather visit a shop where smacking was banned.

Surveyed by more than 1,000 adults from the ICM poll, it was also found that 77 per cent consider that smacking is becoming less acceptable.

In addition, 93 per cent of those who took part in the survey said they wanted to see shops taking action to help parents avoid losing their temper with children.