Verbal Child Abuse

(Tallahassee, Florida) The Florida legislature is contemplating a measure to define verbal child abuse as criminal.

From The Ledger:

A separate appeals court in Florida has ruled that speech could be abuse, but the state Supreme Court recently declined to take up the case to settle the issue.

A bill (HB 1169) that expands the legal definition of child abuse to include abuse that results in 'mental injury' was approved unanimously Wednesday by the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee. It has two more committee hearings before it can go before the full House for a vote.

A similar bill (SB 2736) is filed in the Senate.

Boy, it looks like a gold mine for the psychologists who have to provide evaluation and expert testimony on the level of mental injury suffered by, as an example, the noisy kids outside after someone shouts, "Hey, shut up! You dumbass hyenas!"

It appears to me that the measures are simply more nanny-state political correctness. Additional elements of speech are being made criminal.