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Brianna Ghey’s Mother Says ‘trans Hate’ Directed at Daughter at X is ‘horrible’

By Elliefrost @adikt_blog

The mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey has said the "trans hatred" directed at her daughter when articles about her are posted on social media is "appalling".

Esther Ghey, 37, told the PA news agency that she had posted a comment about her daughter on X, formerly Twitter, but the company did not remove it as they felt it was not against their policy.

Ms Ghey said companies like on the Web. the platform.

She also said there was "nothing on the agenda yet" about a possible meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but added: "I hope to be able to arrange something soon after I have had a short break."

She said she would like to hear "his views" on online safety for young people and discuss her Peace in Mind campaign to train more teachers in mindfulness.

"I've done a few interviews now and as soon as the articles are posted on Twitter the reactions are absolutely terrible, and there's a lot of trans hate towards Brianna," Ms Ghey said.

"Now I'm all for freedom of speech, but I actually reported one of these comments and they came back and said there was nothing wrong with what was said.

"It's just complete hatred and I don't think there's a place for that online."

Ms Ghey expressed concern that children and young people are seeing "this hateful way of speaking" and she would "like to sit down and speak to the regulators and social media companies".

"(Social media companies) have gotten us into this mess now and it's their responsibility to get us out of it, and it's something we can all work on together," she said.

"Social media companies and mobile phone companies both have a moral responsibility to stop thinking so much about profit and actually think about the impact of their product on the people who use it."

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Brianna Ghey’s mother says ‘trans hate’ directed at daughter at X is ‘horrible’
Brianna Ghey’s mother says ‘trans hate’ directed at daughter at X is ‘horrible’

She is campaigning for an age limit on smartphone use and stricter controls on access to social media apps.

When asked what she thought of If you report this, nothing will happen. a bit of a ridiculous title to call themselves.

Ms Ghey said the Online Safety Act does not go far enough.

Asked what she would say to those in government and elsewhere who have said the bill is strong enough to protect young people, Ms Ghey said: "Would they still be happy if their children spent so much time scrolling on social media like most people?" children scrolling on social media once the law is introduced?

"I think I probably wouldn't be."

One of Brianna's killers accessed violent content on the dark web - a part of the internet that makes users untraceable - as they plotted to kill the teenager, and Ms Ghey said it was "absolutely shocking that a young person has access to the dark web".

She said: "Before all this, I didn't even realize the dark web actually existed.

"I thought it was something that was just made up in movies, and the fact that someone who is 15 has access to it is so disturbing and so worrying. It's actually unbelievable."

Ms Ghey plans to meet the mother of Scarlett Jenkinson, one of her daughter's killers, although no date has yet been agreed.

"When I meet her it will be a very personal and private matter between the both of us," she said.

Ms Ghey's comments came as she announced that Peace in Mind had raised £75,000 to train more teachers in mindfulness, a cognitive skill focused on being in the present moment.

Brianna Ghey’s mother says ‘trans hate’ directed at daughter at X is ‘horrible’
Brianna Ghey’s mother says ‘trans hate’ directed at daughter at X is ‘horrible’

The campaign has raised enough money to have a teacher trained in mindfulness at every school in her town of Warrington, Cheshire, with the ambition to take the campaign across the country.

"I think if we had had mindfulness in schools from an early age, we might have succeeded [Brianna] more resilient, and she would have been less at risk of the things she went through when she was a teenager," Ms Ghey said.

Ms Ghey recently discussed her campaign to get mindfulness taught in schools with Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer, which she said was "a really positive meeting", although Sir Keir did not promise to ban smartphones for young people if Labor won the general election.

"We explained about mindfulness and how we would like to go into schools, and we gave him a detour cost quote and he would like to get more information and would like to know how much it would actually cost," Ms Ghey said.

"I guess I understand that he can't commit without having all the information there, so I think the fact that he's being asked for that information is a very positive step in the right direction."

Ms Ghey has found strength in building her daughter's legacy, but added: "Obviously I have bad days and my daughter is still struggling quite a bit.

"We have completely changed our lives so that we no longer notice the hole where Brianna was.

"We really made a conscious effort to remember her for all the good things and to remember her for who she was."

Emily Slater, chief executive of the Mindfulness in Schools Project, which receives funding from Ms Ghey's Peace in Mind campaign to train more teachers in mindfulness, said: "We have a fantastic representative in Esther, for parents and for healthy reason, and I think it will be difficult to find many families, many parents, at this time who are not asking themselves questions about the use of mobile phones or the well-being of their children and young people."

Ms Ghey also met on Thursday Ian Russell, the father of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who committed suicide in November 2017 after seeing harmful material on social media.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Russell told Ms Ghey that while "it has never been easier to be a teenager", social media offered young people a new challenge in finding their way.

He said: 'We have both lost children who had seen harmful things online, and in your case there were other children involved who were motivated to murder by what they had seen online.

"It is almost impossible for a parent to monitor and mirror and know what their children are doing and keep up with all the developments on all technology platforms."

X did not respond when PA contacted me.


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