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Mother of Brianna Ghey calls for blanket phone ban at schools
The Guardian
|September 03, 2025
Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, and the Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet are calling on Keir Starmer to legally ban smartphones in schools, warning current guidance has created a "postcode lottery".
As children in England and Wales return to classes this week, Ghey said research showed that only 11% of secondary schools implemented a full ban on smartphones or required them to be left in a secure and inaccessible place all day.
She said a ban would have "solved so many issues" for her daughter who had been "sucked away from society and into the online world where she was at risk of so many harms".
Brianna, 16, a transgender girl from Warrington, was killed by two teenagers in February 2023.
The government issued guidance in 2024 that "schools should develop a mobile phone policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones... throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, break times and lunchtime".
This story is from the September 03, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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