Chris Hemsworth and wife Elsa slammed for shoving son's face in birthday cake

Chris Hemsworth and his wife, Elsa Pataky, have been slammed after celebrating their son's birthday in a slightly alternative fashion.

Mother-of-three, Elsa, shoved her son's head into his birthday cake as Chris looked on with a big grin at the age-old prank.

The photo has amassed over a million likes less than 24 hours after it was posted to the actor's 56.3 million Instagram followers.

He started: "Happy 9th birthday to my two little men!"

"Only one way to eat cake in this house and that’s to have mum slam your head into it face first!!" he continued.

The A-lister then jokingly mimicked his son saying: "Hey mum I don’t like chocolate cake I prefer vanilla,

"Oh really son, what about now?" before tagging his wife.

Thousands of people have since flooded in, eager to share their reactions to the birthday bash.

Both fans and critics alike fought it out in the comment section as they debated whether the face-planting tradition was just a bit of fun or whether it should be left in the past.

One disgruntled Instagram user wrote: "Why people smash their kids face in the cake is above my understanding but whatever."

"Agreed. I think it’s ridiculous," wrote a second.

And a third added: "It’s so violent." while a fourth said: "whhhyyyyy do people think this is funny."

Others, however, were the furthest thing from fussed about it.

Directly responding to the criticism, one Instagram user fired back: "Because it’s funny and a family tradition and it give kids a memory to laugh at and then the look forward to it happening to their siblings and they share the joy."

They added: "Just a bit of basic humour….. they look like they are having a good time together."

And a second continued: "Violent? It’s a bit of play!

"Those kids are gonna grow up able to take a joke not be some little fairy who thinks having their head dipped in frosting is violent."

Another dubbed the moment a 'Proud Dad Moment' while another praised Chris' 'proud dad stance'.

While someone else wrote: "That is the correct and only way to eat a yummy chocolate cake…"

"8 is a fabulous age….to get your face slammed into a chocolate cake," chimed in another accompanied with a laughing emoji.

Tyla has reached out to Chris Hemsworth's reps for comment.

What are your thoughts?