Mother of Murdered Teen Calls For Kids to Be Banned From Social Media
By Movieguide® Contributor
Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, is calling for children to be banned from social media.
Brianna, 16, was killed by Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 15, with a hunting knife after they lured her to a park. Jenkinson’s internet history showed that she had watched videos of people being tortured and murdered online.
“We’d like a law introduced so that there are mobile phones that are only suitable for under-16s,” Esther said while appearing on the BBC. “So if you’re over 16, you can have an adult phone, but then under the age of 16, you can have a children’s phone, which will not have all of the social media apps that are out there now.”
She continued, “Also to have software that is automatically downloaded on the parents’ phone which links to the children’s phone, that can highlight key words. So if a child is searching the kind of words that Scarlett and Eddie were searching, it will then flag up on the parent’s phone.”
Esther also pointed to her own daughter’s struggles with social media, saying it encouraged her self-harm and eating disorder.
“If she couldn’t have accessed the sites, she wouldn’t have suffered as much,” Esther said.
Esther said that the recent Online Safety Bill was “a step in the right direction” but added, “I think that we do need something a little bit more drastic for children.”
Jenkinson and Ratcliffe were recently sentenced to life in prison for the murder.
“All of our thoughts are for Brianna and her family,” Jenkinson’s family said in a statement. “The last 12 months have been beyond our worst nightmares as we have come to realize the brutal truth of Scarlett’s actions.”
Movieguide® previously reported on how social media can increase violence in young people:
As online disputes turn into in-person violence, many are raising concerns about social media’s deadly impact on teens.
“In 2020, homicides spiked by 30% and fluctuated around that level for the next two years. There are early signs that the 2023 rate could show a decrease of more than 10% from last year, but that would still leave it well above pre-pandemic levels,” ProPublica reported.
“There’s been a 91% increase between 2014 and 2021—91% increase in homicides among 15- to 19-year-olds,” Alec MacGillis told NPR.
James Timpson, a violence prevention worker in Baltimore, Maryland, revealed that social media has played a major role in this spike.
“When I was young and I would get into an argument with somebody at school, the only people who knew about it were me and the people at school,” Timpson said. “Not right now. Five hundred people know about it before you even leave school. And then you got this big war going on.”
- Content: +1Share:
- Content: +3