Is it appropriate to use electric shock on children?

HA!  You ever been tazered?  To me, it's got to be a form of torture.  I guess it beats getting the hell beat out of you with a nightstick....but still, trust me on this, if a Police Officer says he's going to taze you.....just comply with his directive.....or be electrocuted.  

I never thought of using mine on my children.....but....they ARE getting too old to beat...maybe I'll rethink it.

Outside of the barbaric use of stun guns, electric shock has been used very effectively with certain populations of people to deter them from injuring themselves with self unjurious behavior for decades.  Think about an adult with severe developemental delays punching themselves in the face with closed fists.  Many have given themselves seizure disorders, detached retinas (blindness), etc.  The use of mild electric shock has been effective in preventing many people from harming themselves permanantly.

How is it different than spanking/hitting? Something light like a dog shock collar.
It's deliberate pain inflicted to teach a lesson, right? Especially if they aren't old enough to reason, right?

Stir, stir, stir. But I'm genuinely curious as to the answers. 

I think there are quite a few differences, including the fact that it is being done by representative of the law as an alternative to being shot with a gun, rather than a parent as an alternative to being put in a quiet room (and not just "deliberate pain to teach a lesson). (I know there are abuses by officers - the paper here recently ran a week-long series on the dysfunctionality of one of the local police departments, which included officers "playing" with tasers by shocking coworkers, spouses, and civilians "for fun").

And given that children have some reasoning ability by 7, I would hope that we are not talking about tasing pre-schoolers. I would think it going to be primarily adolescents, or the occasional "early blooming" pre-adolescent (I've seen some pretty horrible behaviors by 10-12 year olds).

I regularly electrocuted my younger brother when we were kids … and it didn’t kill him.

And none of that watered down voltage you have on that side of the pond 

Oh of course!  I would never spank or hit my kid, but taze them?  I'll do that just for fun!  I can clearly remember as a kid hearing, "You want to know what will happen?  Well then go ahead and stick that fork into the outlet and see what happens."  So I use my cattle prod on my kids all the time to keep them in line.

... But I don't spank them.

I would assume we are talking about in a riot or crowd type situation? Where in the past pepper spray, batons, and guns might have been used?

Now that you put it like that, I wish I would have thought of it earlier....I could have saved my hand some pain.  Plus, once they get conditioned to the collar yo don't even really have to shock them, you just put it on and have instant compliance..

I have mixed thoughts about this regarding the safety of both the child and the police officer.

The first thought is that I'd much rather see non-lethal force being used whenever possible, especially if it involves a kid.

The second thought is that, living in the city, I'd worry that a cop would pull out a Tazer and the kid would pull out a gun.

If you mean using electric shock as a means of behavior modification in children, I am completely opposed. It's my belief that if you have to resort to physical discipline you've lost control of the situation. There's a difference between a pat on the butt to get their attention and smacking them repeatedly as punishment. I've done the former, never did the latter, and both my kids are turning out pretty well.

If a kid is unarmed, a "normal" officer should be able to subdue him without too much risk or effort to either person. 

If the kid has some close quarters weapon like a knife or a hammer then a tazer is the perfect option - it removes any risk from the cop, stuns the kid for 5-10 seconds allowing for the removal of the threat. No issue with this at all. It's not about pain it's about freezing the person in place while you move in.

Kid has a gun and looks like he's going to use it then he's likely to get a double tap to the chest unfortunately.

It's not supposed to be a "listen to me or I'll shock you again, shock shock shock" sort of thing but that happens. 

If the taser isn't fired, it can also be used like a stun baton just by touch - it's like getting punched really really hard, or hit with a bat.

Me too!

"Don't taze me Bro"

"BRO.. I'M NOT YOUR BRO, I'M YOUR FATHER"   GGZZZZZZZZZZ

For some sick reason I laughed when I saw Powerman weighing in on this thread. Does he get a kickback?

I wish...

I'm sorry, I'm going to just put it out there... watching tazer videos is just pure entertainment. No I'm not sadistic, no I do not approve of police misuse of force... but watching people get tazed is a riot. Sorry... shoot me.