The French National Assembly has voted in favour of a "symbolic ban" against parents smacking their children, reports Euronews.
The bill on "corporal punishment", considered symbolic because it does not sanction parents if they smack their children, aims to educate parents to not punish with physical violence.
MPs voted the bill through early on Friday morning and it will now pass to the Senate.
Maud Petit, an MP from the Democratic Movement group who introduced the measure, said violence "was not a form of education but all the opposite", according to French media.
The bill does, however, amend the Civil Code's definition of parental authority, to prohibit discipline by "physical, psychological, and verbal violence."