Mum of murdered teen says people are 'missing the point'
Esther Ghey has shared a family activity she did daily to help her cope after her daughter’s murder. Brianna Ghey, from Warrington, was 16 when she was lured to Culcheth Linear Park by her killers, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe.
The Birchwood Community High School pupil was ambushed and stabbed 28 times on February 11 last year - her body was later discovered in the park by members of the public who were walking their dog. The two teenage killers planned their attack in sickening messages exchanged on WhatsApp and were inspired by content available on the dark web.
Since her daughter's murder, Esther has campaigned for mindfulness to be implemented in schools and for safer regulations around young people's internet access. In her latest bid to campaign, the mum-of-two is co-hosting a podcast series titled Parents vs The Internet.
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The ten-part series sees Esther, a new product development technologist, link up with journalist Liz Hull as they speak with special guests to explore “how we can keep our children safer”. Released this week, episode four sees the team joined by Tanya Goodin, a campaigner on tech ethics and founder of the digital detox movement the Time to Log Off.
Esther said: “Thinking of some of the articles I’ve done, I’ve received some horrific comments on the articles I’ve done. Every so often, I'll go on and see if there’s anything constructive, and quite often, there’s not.
“But one thing is they (the comments) always say mindfulness will result in a society full of narcissists, and that completely misses the point. If we’re constantly on social media, posting and editing photos of ourselves, is that not essentially creating a society of narcissists?”
Esther also said she recognised how it is “very difficult” to keep “every single piece of harmful content” away from young people, but as a society, we need to find a solution. The mum only discovered Brianna was watching eating disorder and suicidal ideation content before she was murdered.
She added: “It’s the most vulnerable teenagers and children who fall prey to these kinds of things because they are searching in the first place, ‘how to do I better manage my anxiety’, or ‘how do I release stress?’. They then fall into the self-harm side of things, and the algorithm will just feed them more and more of these and more extreme versions of this.
Each 25-minute episode features conversations with guests, including trans activist Jaxon Feely, Ofcom's policy director for child safety, therapists, authors, and survivors of mental illness. Over the course, listeners will explore how mobile phone companies can take responsibility for safeguarding children and how phones can be set up in an age-appropriate way.
Esther previously said she believed Brianna would've been much happier in her final years without a smartphone. She said: "She was so protective over her phone. If I asked to look at her phone, there would be holes in the door, and she would go absolutely mad because I took it off her. I really do believe, especially in the final years of Brianna's life, it would have been so much more peaceful and happier if the smartphone hadn't been there in the first place."
Esther created the podcast not to "scaremonger" or "put fear" into other parents but to "educate them". She said she wasn't fully aware of the content Brianna was accessing or to what extent.
She said: "I wish I had known because when you are educated and have this knowledge, it is only then that you can actually make a change and that you can help.”