The mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey has launched a campaign to ban mobile phones in schools in England.
Supported by then actress Kate Winslet, launches campaign for statutory smartphone ban in UK schools citing critical safety and mental health concerns.
Brianna, 16, was stabbed to death by two 15-year-olds after being lured to a park in Warrington in 2023
Her killers had spent time on the dark web. At the same time, Brianna was also trapped online, struggling with a phone addiction.
Her mother said that the constant time she spent online exacerbated those issues, while impacting her behaviour at school, where she had 120 safeguarding logs and 116 behaviour incidents recorded by her teachers.
In media interviews this morning she said that we are losing our children to the online world
Research by the Children’s Commission has shown that 79% of secondary schools are still allowing pupils to bring their mobile phones into school, and even into classrooms.
Esther Ghey says that in Brianna’s former school deploying the ban has led to a 25% increase passrate in some GCSE’s
