A video of a parent's public punishment for their young child has TikTok divided, with some in favour of their unconventional method while others think they've gone too far.

The video was first shared to TikTok last week and shows a young child standing on the side of the road, holding a sign.

"I am a bully, honk if you hate bullies," the sign says, it appears the child's parents are sitting off to the side in fold-out camping chairs with their dog.

"Dude, that's so foul," someone from inside a car says in the video, as they and another person inside the car discuss whether the situation is "f**ked" or not.

Another person from inside the car says they want to "yell" at the parents.

The person who shared the video to TikTok said in the caption the dad was "a bully", however, not everyone agreed, with one person even saying the parents were "awesome".

"If you disagree with this form of punishment, you're soft," one person said in the comments of the TikTok.

"Kid needs to learn his lesson."

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Another person said bullying has severe consequences and they hoped this would help the kid learn a lesson. Some pointed out embarrassing the child like this would likely make him think twice about bullying.

However, many agreed with the TikToker who shared the video and said having a child stand by the road with the sign was not the answer.

"Publicly embarrassing your child isn't the way to fix the problem," one person said, another adding public discipline would not teach their child anything.

According to research, publicly shaming children can do more harm than good.

Associate professor of social work at the University of Michigan, Andy Grogan-Kaylor said shaming a child can lead to future problems, like depression, anxiety and aggression, LiveScience reported.

"The research is pretty clear that it's never appropriate to shame a child, or to make a child feel degraded or diminished," Professor Grogan-Kaylor said.

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