The mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey called for a ban on social media for children under 16, calling it an “absolute cesspit”.
Esther Ghey was speaking at the screening of a new ITV documentary, Brianna: A Mother’s Story, which explores the death of Brianna, 16, who was murdered by classmate Scarlett Jenkinson and her friend Eddie Ratcliffe.
Jenkinson and Ratcliffe, who were both 15 at the time of the murder, lured Brianna to a park in Cheshire where she was stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife, on February 11 2023.
On her campaigning work on online safety and trolling, Ms Ghey said: “Even if, say, if I do an interview, and I’ll try not to look at comments, but I can never help myself, and I’ll look at the comments, and you’ll see people saying about my child, trying to tell me what gender my child was, and also really, really horrific comments too.
“And it’s mentioned in the documentary as well, that when you report things, the support isn’t there.”
Speaking at the screening in west London, Ms Ghey said one of the reasons she had chosen to take part in the documentary was to “get answers” from social media companies about safety.
She said: “At this point, I really do not believe that any social media company will put lives before profit.”
Ms Ghey has previously met prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, and his predecessor Rishi Sunak, to discuss the issue, and has criticised the Online Safety Act, saying it does not go far enough.
She has campaigned for an age limit on smartphone use, stricter controls on access to social media apps, tougher action on knife crime and for mindfulness to be taught in schools.
She added: “I’ve reported so many comments, and I always get the response that they haven’t done anything wrong, that it’s not something that they can take down, and our children have access to those comments.
“No matter how much love and compassion you pump into your child when you’re bringing them up, and how much empathy you can teach them as well, they will then go online and they’ll see the way that other people are speaking about other people, and they might think that that’s right.
“And that’s without even going into the amount of harm that’s online, like the dangerous challenges where young people are losing their lives due to these sick challenges that people are uploading, misogyny, hate, misinformation, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.”
The 75-minute film celebrates Brianna’s life and features interviews with three of her friends, who describe the schoolgirl as kind, chatty and funny. It also explores her death and issues around online safety.
Brianna, who had thousands of followers on TikTok, struggled with her mental health, which was worsened by accessing eating disorder and self-harm content on X.
From the age of 14, one of her killers, Jenkinson, enjoyed watching videos of real killing and torture on the dark web, fantasised about murder and developed an interest in serial killers.
The documentary follows Ms Ghey as she travels to the US and meets Arturo Bejar, a former engineering director at social media giant Meta, who testified before Congress about child safety on the company’s platforms.
He tells her that people are “defenceless” against harmful algorithms.
The film also features officers from Cheshire Police, who speak about the investigation into Brianna’s murder, and videos of custody suite interviews with both killers, who were caught within 28 hours.
Brianna: A Mother’s Story, will air on Thursday March 27 at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player.
Meta, X and TikTok have been contacted for comment.
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
