I salute Brianna’s brave mum. She’s fighting to save other children from the ‘Wild West’ of the web

I AM not sure how esther Ghey, mother of murdered teenager Brianna, gets out of bed each morning, or if she will ever smile again. But what I do know is that she is a selfless and forgiving hero despite living the nightmare that every parent dreads.

Only days after her daughter’s brutal murderers, Scarlett Jenkinson and eddie ratcliffe — just 15 when they lured Brianna to her death — were sentenced, esther somehow found the strength to give a powerful interview to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

She called on the Government to block under-16s having access to social media on smartphones and advocated special ‘ children’s phones’ without apps.

She also wants to make it legal for parents to be ‘flagged’ via built-in software on a linked phone if their children try to access inappropriate and harmful material.

She was adamant that Brianna would still be alive if children were better protected from the ‘Wild West’ of the web.

I have no doubt that she is right.

CHILD murderers are thankfully rare. Mary Bell, who was just ten when she murdered the first of two pre-school age victims in 1968, was diagnosed with a psychopathic personality disorder.

the killers of James Bulger — Jon Venables and robert thompson — were also ten years old when they abducted, tortured and murdered the toddler. Both came from deeply troubled and chaotic homes.

From what we know following their trial, Jenkinson and ratcliffe came from stable backgrounds but, according to their own testimony in court, had their minds altered by their use of social media content and the images they’d sought out.

Jenkinson, in particular, was obsessed with horror films and serial killers and had searched for and watched gruesome murder and real- life torture videos on the dark web. As I watched esther Ghey making her emotional plea and her impassioned warnings about the dangers lying in wait for our children on the internet, I thought of all the parents I’d spoken to during the two years I was Minister for Mental Health.

Some of them had lost sons and daughters — children and young adults who’d taken their own lives as a result of viewing legal but harmful content on the internet. recent analysis showed that in 2021 suicide rates among 15 to 19-year-olds in england had reached their highest point in 30 years, while the number of children suffering from eating disorders has also exploded.

Esther says she only found out after Brianna’s death that she had been viewing pro-anorexia and self-harm sites.

Too many youngsters are being targeted by social media algorithms that lead them to dark places. these soon learn all about your child: how old he or she is; when they might be at home alone on a Friday night; whether they are lonely or sad.

they know when, perhaps out of curiosity, a child clicks on a harmful video and can tempt them with more.

Social media and the web are indeed a ‘Wild West’. And esther Ghey and her family and too many others are paying a high price for it.

But with all due respect to the courageous esther, a new law to ban under- 16s from owning phones with internet access, and which would allow parents to be alerted when children access harmful content, would be impossible to enforce.

Instead, the Online Safety Bill, which I steered through Parliament as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and which is now law, allows the regulator Ofcom to hold Big tech — Google, Apple, Microsoft and Meta, which runs Instagram, Facebook and Whats App — to account.

It can impose multi-millionpound fines if they fail to protect users, particularly children, from harmful and illegal content.

rather than ‘ phase it in’ as Ofcom is doing, we should enforce its provisions as soon as possible — and explore every other avenue to protect our own children.

education Secretary Gillian Keegan has taken the bold step to ban mobile phones in schools, but that’s taking far too long to implement.

With her brave words — and whether she might want it or not — esther Ghey finds herself at the forefront of a campaign to keep our children safe online.

Her experience is raw and real, and when faced with women like esther, politicians will listen and try to help.

She has a hard road ahead but undoubtedly she will save lives in the process.