My daughter, Brianna Ghey, was murdered on the 11th of February 2023. She was lured to a park by two fifteen-year-olds and stabbed 28 times. The children who killed her had been consuming violent and extreme content online. One of them was watching torture videos and so-called “red room” material on the dark web. Part of their motive was to act out the disturbing things they had seen online.

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In the months before her death, Brianna was struggling deeply with her mental health. She was self-harming, battling anorexia, and becoming increasingly isolated from those who loved her. I worried about how much time she was spending on her phone and who she was speaking to online, but it wasn’t until after she died that I discovered she had been accessing harmful content that encouraged self-harm and disordered eating. I still don’t know the full extent of what she saw.

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Her phone had become an addiction. She was constantly scrolling, often late into the night, and trying to take it away led to constant conflict. I could see it was hurting her, but I didn’t know how to help, and neither did the professionals we turned to.

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It is my mission to prevent young people and families from suffering the way we did. I carry Brianna in my heart every single day, she is the driving force behind everything I do.

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Esther,

Brianna's Mum x