Brianna’s Mum Criticizes Insufficient Strength of Online Act

The mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey is calling for stronger measures to protect children, rejecting Rishi Sunak’s claim that the Online Safety Act is sufficient. Esther Ghey believes that children should be prevented from accessing social media apps and is reiterating her call after the prime minister stated that the new law would be robust enough. Brianna, 16, was stabbed to death after being lured to a park in Cheshire by her teenage killers, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe. The pair, both 15 at the time, had a fascination with violence and had planned the killing for weeks using a messaging app. Jenkinson had also watched violent videos on the dark web. Ms Ghey is campaigning for under-16s to be blocked from accessing social media on smartphones and for stronger parental controls to flag potentially harmful searches. She suggests that mobile phone companies should take more responsibility and that children should only have access to child-friendly mobile phones without the ability to download social media apps. She also proposes using software that can alert parents if concerning words are being searched. While Ms Ghey believes that the Online Safety Bill is a step in the right direction, she thinks more drastic measures are needed for children’s protection. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, however, believes that the Online Safety Act is sufficient and gives Ofcom the power to ensure that children are not exposed to harmful content online.