Esther Ghey says social media firms won't put lives before profit

BBC News

23-03-2025

The mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey said she does not believe social media companies would put "lives before profit".Esther Ghey was speaking at the screening of a new ITV documentary, Brianna: A Mother's Story, which explores the death of her 16-year-old daughter, who was murdered by two teenagers.Scarlet Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, who were both 15 at the time, lured Brianna to a park in Cheshire on 11 February 2023, where she was stabbed 28 times with a hunting knife.The 75-minute film celebrates Brianna's life and features interviews with three of her friends, while also examining issues around online safety.
Brianna - who was transgender - struggled with her mental health which was worsened by accessing eating disorder and self-harm content on X.She had thousands of followers on TikTok, with some of the videos she posted going viral.From the age of 14, Jenkinson was drawn to videos on the dark web of real killing and torture, fantasised about murder and developed an interest in serial killers.Speaking at the documentary screening, Ms Ghey said one of the reasons she had chosen to take part was to "get answers" from social media companies about safety."At this point, I really do not believe that any social media company will put lives before profit."She added that she wanted to ensure "my family's story was told truthfully, and people could get to know Brianna the way we did". In the film, Ms Ghey spoke in depth for the first time about her "beautiful daughter" and how the devastating loss had driven her campaign for change.
On her campaigning work on online safety and trolling, she said she supported a ban for under-16s on the "absolute cesspit" of social media."Even if, say, if I do an interview I'll try not to look at comments, but I can never help myself," she said."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."She added that this was mentioned in the documentary and that when things were reported there was no support."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, how much empathy you can teach them, they will then go online and they'll see the way that people are speaking about others and they might think 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."People uploading misogyny, hate, misinformation, and that is just the tip of the iceberg," she said.In deeply personal conversations, she discussed her ongoing campaign to make the UK safer for children and called for a public inquiry into peer-on-peer violence, why it is on the rise, and what can be done to stop it happening. She also looks at whether social media is making children harm themselves or others.
Ms Ghey had previously met Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, as well as his predecessor Rishi Sunak, to discuss the issue, and had criticised the Online Safety Act for not going 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."We need to make people realise that we, as consumers, have the power. "If we all decide to keep our children off social media or to give them a 'brick' phone, we can vote with our money. "Brianna was genuinely addicted and I understand the signs of addiction because I have been an addict. Teenagers are often glued to their tablets eight hours a day. That's not healthy."
The film explores Brianna's upbringing in Warrington through interviews with her her sister Alisha, as well as her close friends, who describe her as kind, chatty and funny. They speak about the "wonderful" and "amazing" person Brianna was, and speak about her trans journey.The documentary includes detectives from Cheshire Police who speak about the investigation into her murder and reveal for the first time how they quickly built up their case to bring the perpetrators to justice.Ms Ghey said she hoped that documentary "contributed to the push for our children's welfare, online and offline".The social media companies all refused to be part of the documentary and have declined a meeting with Ms Ghey. Meta, X and TikTok have been contacted for comment.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story you can visit BBC Action Line.Brianna: A Mother's Story, will air on 27 March at 21:00 GMT on ITV1 and ITVX.Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas to [e-mail]