Brianna Ghey's mum on the dangers of teenagers being immersed in online world (2025)

Esther Ghey spoke at a Q&A ahead of the airing of the ITV documentary Brianna: A Mother's Story later this month. Her daughter's death is one of the heartbreaking cases that inspired the Netflix show Adolescence.

As Scarlett Jenkinson started at the dock floor, a dark picture was painted of her online life. 'Immersed' in graphic and violent content - including serial killer documentaries and videos of torture - the teenager had sunk to disturbing depths.

As the troubling details of her morbid hobbies were laid bare in court, the teenager shuffled in her chair beside her co-accused. She and Eddie Ratcliffe were on trial charged with murder.

Their alleged victim was Brianna Ghey - a young woman whose life was on a completely different path to the pair in the dock. Navigating her teenage years, she knew who she was and where she wanted to go.

Proudly transgender, she didn't hide her true self. But like Jenkinson, Brianna had retreated into an online world of her own.

The 16-year-old's life was brutally snatched away in Warrington in February 2023. Jurors would hear Jenkinson, then 15, had become 'obsessed' with Brianna after they became friends.

She would go on to methodically plan her murder, all the while exploring macabre content online. Brianna was stabbed to death in a sickening attack in Culcheth Linear Park, suffering 28 knife wounds. Jenkinson and Ratcliffe - 16 by the time they went on trial - were found guilty of murder.

Jenkinson was locked up for 22 years and Ratcliffe 20 in February last year. Watching from the public gallery was Brianna's mother Esther.

In the wake of her daughter's death, showing incredible strength and resolve, she launched Peace & Mind UK. The charity is aimed at making the web and social media safer for young people - and introducing 'mindfulness' in schools.

The issue of young people's use of social media has again entered the national conversation in recent weeks following the release of Adolescence, a four-part Netflix drama starring Stephen Graham.

Centring around a 13-year-old boy accused of the murdering a girl from school, the show tackles some of the difficult topics and explores incel culture.

Graham has said the series is not based on a single case, but is inspired by the knife crime epidemic in the UK, with a shocking number of incidents involving young people.

He told the Radio times of an attack in Liverpool. "I just thought 'why?'," he added. "Then there was another young girl in south London who was stabbed to death at a bus stop. And there was this thing up north, where that young girl Brianna Ghey was lured into the park by two teenagers.

"I just thought 'what's going on? What is this that's happening?'."

Separately, Brianna: A Mother's Story is due for release on March 27. Esther took part in the ITV documentary, which chronicles her daughter's life and tragic death, as well as conversations around harmful online content young people consume.

Following a screening of the documentary in London, Esther took part in a question and answer session with journalists. Her message was clear.

"I'm at a point now where I would honestly say under-16s should be banned from social media. It's an absolute cesspit. No matter how much love, compassion and empathy you pump into your child, they will then go online and see how others are speaking about people.

"And that's without the amount of harm that's online - misogyny, hate, misinformation. That is just the tip of the iceberg."

'Public property'

Esther added: "When you do lose a child, especially in tragic circumstances - which is so high profile - your child essentially becomes public property.

"Anybody can write anything that they want to. When I do an interview I'll try not to look at the comments, but you'll see people saying really horrific things about Brianna."

Speaking about the documentary, she said: "It was important for me to work with somebody I trusted, to make the documentary authentic and show Brianna for who she was.

"Her friends did an outstanding job at that - they showed her lovely, fun, carefree side too."

"As she became a teenager, she retreated into herself," step-dad Wes Powell said. "Especially when we gave her a phone," Esther added.

Interviews with several of Brianna's friends, and a reel of clips from her Tiktok account, paint a picture of a vivacious girl who loved make-up, nails, bows and all things pink and feminine.

Photos show her bedroom's pink walls, fairy lights, fluffy pens and a keyring with the letter B. It was there that Brianna would film TikToks showing her outfits, hairstyles and looks for school.

Throughout her transition, Brianna and her mum were close. "She was so proud to be trans," Esther says in the documentary. "She would not let anybody take that away from her. She took it all in her stride."

A friend added that Brianna had told her: "I don't think I could be Brianna without my mum."

The relationship became somewhat strained as Brianna struggled with mental ill-health and retreated into an online world, where she began talking to strangers.

"On her phone, I could see her getting all these Snapchat notifications... all these Bitmojis popping up - and it was men with beards," Esther said.

"She was always secretive about it. I struggled to monitor her. It was a never-ending stream of worry. She was posting TikToks and half would be positive comments, but the other half was calling her names and slurs.

"I pointed this out to her and she said she didn't care. 'Have you seen how many likes I've got?'. The more I tried to help, the more she pushed me away."

Around the age of 14 Brianna developed an eating disorder that would see her eventually hospitalised. An inquest into her death in October 2024 heard she had looked at Twitter accounts promoting eating disorders and self-harm, something she also struggled with.

"In a way, the period in hospital actually helped," Wes says in the documentary. "It was a break from social media."

'We were happy she had a friend'

When Brianna returned to lessons at Birchwood Community High School, she met Jenkinson, who had transferred from another school due to her behaviour.

Snapchat footage showed typical teenage hijinks, with the pair spending time together, hanging out at McDonald's and dying Jenkinson's hair in the toilets of Birchwood Asda.

The friendship grew. One Saturday in February 2023, Brianna surprised her family by getting the bus 20 minutes away to Culcheth to meet up with her friend.

"I was pleased that she was going out," Esther said. "She had never been on a bus by herself before. I thought it was a step in the right direction. Maybe she was going to be fine.

"I didn't have any concerns about where she was going. I trusted that she was going to meet a friend, and I trusted Scarlett.

"We were happy she had a friend," Wes said. "She was going outside, not locked away in her room, staring at a screen."

Doorbell camera footage aired at the trial showed Brianna leaving the house for what would be the last time. Clips from bus cameras showed her making the journey alone before alighting in Culcheth and walking away with two figures.

In the aftermath of the case, Esther spoke publicly about her forgiveness for her daughter's killers. She said in February she regularly meets with Jenkinson's mother.

'Change in Brianna's name'

When Jenkinson was sentenced, the court heard she had been inspired to kill after 'immersing herself' in violent and murderous content.

"I don't think we'll ever know what exactly motivated it," Esther says in the documentary. "The things she was seeing online... there is so much harmful content there that children are accessing. It really needs to be looked into."

None of the social media companies ITV approached for the documentary agreed to meet with Esther, nor did they give a statement.

"The fact that nobody would even make a comment really stands out to me," she said. "When you report comments, the support isn't there. I always get the response that they 'haven't done anything wrong'."

"We want to open people's eyes about these dangers. I think I was so naïve to what was actually on there. Hopefully this will get the government to support what we're doing - to make a change in Brianna's name."

Introducing the documentary at the screening, Tom Giles, controller of current affairs at ITV, said: "There is a darkness in this film, we cannot get away from that.

"But there is love there as well - the love of friends, community, family, and Esther's for her daughter. That love comes shining through the darkness.

"After she died, the cherry blossoms bloomed so massive," Esther said. "There were so many pink skies and sunsets, it was like she was sending us a message that she was there and she was okay.

"I would always say 'goodnight, love you' and Brianna would always say 'stop saying that'. So I did. Hold your children tight and never stop telling them that you love them."

Brianna: A Mother's Story will air on ITV on March 27 at 9pm.