Brianna Ghey's mum says child-safe phone would have saved her life

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg today (February 4), Esther Ghey spoke of her campaign for new laws ‘making mobile phone companies take more responsibility’ in helping parents safeguard children online.

In a moving interview on the BBC’s flagship political programme, she paid tribute to her 16-year-old daughter, who was ‘absolutely full of life’ and ‘such a character’, adding: "Nobody who met her would ever forget her."

She said the prison sentences handed down to Brianna’s killers, 16-year-olds Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, on Friday, February 2, ‘were right’, though she doubts Jenkinson will ever be released from prison.

Esther told Laura Kuenssberg she would be open to talking to killer Scarlett Jenkinson's mum (Image: BBC)

“I don’t think there’s any chance of rehabilitation,” she added.

Laura Kuenssberg admired Esther’s ‘extraordinary courage and compassion’ for the families of Jenkinson and Ratcliffe, from Leigh, which the former’s mum has thanked her publicly for.

The 37-year-old said she doesn’t blame her for her daughter’s crime and would be open to talking to her in the future.

“I don’t carry any hate” she said.

“Hate is such a harmful emotion to the person holding it.”

Instead, Esther is calling for new laws helping parents monitor children’s internet use.

Jenkinson, now 16, visited websites showing images of torture and extreme violence before she murdered Brianna, and the killing itself had been arranged on social messaging apps.

Esther said she believes ‘without a doubt’ her daughter would still be alive if Jenkinson’s parents could have monitored what she’d been viewing online.

“Scarlett and Eddie wouldn’t have been searching what they had in the first place, or if they did, the parents would have known and would’ve been able to get them some kind of help” said Esther.

“I understand how difficult being a parent is in this day and age. With technology and phones and the internet, it’s hard to monitor what your child is on.”

“I’d like to see mobile phone companies take more responsibility.

“It’s so difficult for a parent to safeguard their children. They carry a mobile phone in their pockets twenty-four seven now - smartphones with the internet and all the social media sites.

“It’s so difficult to keep on top of what they’re doing.

“We’ve set up a petition, which we’d like all parents to sign, to have law introduced so there are mobile phones suitable for under 16s.

“If you’re over 16, you can have an adult phone. But if you’re under, you can have a child's phone which won’t have all the social media apps out there now.

“We’d also like to have software which is automatically downloaded on parents’ phones which links to children’s phones to highlight key words.

“There’s software already available, which schools are using. I feel it’s such a simple solution, and I don’t understand why we haven’t actually done something like this already.”

Laura Kuenssburg asked Esther why she thinks this is so important.  

Esther added: “Brianna struggled with her mental health, and I found out afterwards she was on certain social media sites, pro-anorexia sites, and self-harm sites, which I wasn’t aware of.

“It was difficult to monitor Brianna’s phone because she wanted that trust, and she was very protective over her phone.

“If she couldn’t have accessed these sites, she wouldn’t have suffered as much."