The mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey is calling on Sir Keir Starmer to ban smartphones in schools, claiming it “would really have helped her daughter”.
In addition, Esther Ghey is calling for increased funding for schools to implement phone lock pouches, which she claims have worked well for her daughter’s previous school, Birchwood Community High School in Warrington.
Brianna was killed in a despicable, deliberate attack by Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe in a Warrington park in February 2023.
Her mother is now supporting the ban along with actors Stephen Graham, Kate Winslet, and a number of Members of Parliament.
Esther told reporters, “For me, it would have really helped Brianna. It would have helped her to focus on her schoolwork.
“She wouldn’t have been getting into so much trouble because all of the issues were around the phone use. She would have had a much better chance in life.”
During the three years Brianna was at Birchwood, there were 120 safeguarding logs and 116 behaviour logs around her phone use, Esther said.
Esther explained: “These ranged from Brianna being at risk of child sexual exploitation, to what she was accessing online, which was encouraging her to self-harm and to have an eating disorder…As a parent, I really felt like I was failing…I didn’t know what to do.”
Talking about the services Brianna was offered, Esther told her daughter’s inquest last year: “I feel like she was let down with the lack of mental health treatment.”
Under the Birchwood approach, students’ phones are put in pouches when they first arrive at school and are then carried around by them instead of being locked somewhere else.
Esther said: “The funding needs to be in place, because I’ve spoken to headteachers.
“They’ve said sometimes it’s a choice between a new classroom assistant or the pouches, and headteachers shouldn’t have to make that choice.”
Asked about this, Esther said: “My thoughts on the idea currently is that under-16s shouldn’t be on social media full stop. There’s so much harmful content on there.
“And I think that’s the issue with schools, because there’s so many parents that are completely locking down phone or that are choosing to give the children brick phones so they can’t access social media, but when they go to secondary school, they’re opened up to a world of harms because all the children have phones.”
A ban in schools is just “one part of the puzzle” in the approach to children’s phone and social media usage, she added.
Jenkinson and Ratcliffe, both 15 at the time, lured Brianna to Culcheth Linear Park in Warrington, where the 16-year-old transgender teenager was fatally stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife in February 2023.
Jenkinson was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court in December 2023 to a minimum sentence of 22 years in prison, and Ratcliffe to a minimum term of 20 years.
The court heard how Ratcliffe’s motivation was, in part, hostility to Brianna’s transgender identity, while Jenkinson was motivated by a “deep desire to kill”.
Responding to the news of the sentencing, former Met Police senior detective Peter Bleksley told GB News: “It is so astonishing, so brutal, and so vile. My thoughts go out to everyone who knew and loved Brianna.”
Smartphone use by kids should be restricted until they graduate from school since it can lead to several issues, such as grooming and harassment.
Youngsters should only have rudimentary access to a cell phone in case of an emergency.
No child should be bullied, full stop! It should be made illegal to bully another person, regardless of their age.
Even before cell phones and the internet, many children were victims of bullying, but it is much worse now.
Back then, there were no cell phones, and I was subjected to severe bullying at school. I was fortunate enough to be able to defend myself rather adequately, but many people are unable to do so and end up taking their own lives.
The majority of internet gadgets include parental controls, so parents must take charge and limit what their kids can and cannot do on their phones and other devices.
It’s a treacherous world out there, and parents should be mindful of those perils.
A strong smartphone policy is already in place at several schools. Contract phones should not be available to anybody under the age of 18. Pay as you go is more than sufficient, but we do require more responsible parents. If their kids aren’t using their phones appropriately, they should be banned from using them.
Smartphones and other internet devices are an issue for most kids, and they have far too much access at a young age. And these devices should now come with a health warning!
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