{"id":393695,"date":"2025-09-03T04:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T04:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/393695\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T04:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T04:51:10","slug":"mother-of-brianna-ghey-joins-kate-winslet-in-call-for-smartphone-ban-in-schools-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/393695\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother of Brianna Ghey joins Kate Winslet in call for smartphone ban in schools | Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, and the Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet are calling on Keir Starmer<\/a> to legally ban smartphones in schools, warning current guidance against allowing phones has created a \u201cpostcode lottery\u201d.<\/p>\n

As children in England and Wales return to classes this week, Ghey said research showed that only 11% of secondary schools were currently implement a full ban on bringing in smartphones or requiring them to be left in a secure and inaccessible place all day.<\/p>\n

She said a ban would have \u201csolved so many issues\u201d for her daughter, who was \u201csucked away from society and into the online world where she was at risk of so many harms\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brianna, 16, a transgender girl from Warrington, was described as addicted to her phone<\/a>. She was killed by two teenagers in February 2023, one of whom she believed to be her friend.<\/p>\n

The government has resisted banning smartphones in schools, insisting headteachers are able to take their own actions. It issued guidance in 2024 that \u201cschools should develop a mobile phone policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones \u2026 throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, break times and lunchtime\u201d.<\/p>\n

But subsequent research<\/a> among 2,467 secondary schools in April by the children\u2019s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, found that while 90% had some restrictions on phone use, only 3.5% banned phones from school grounds and only 7.9% required pupils to hand in their phones for the whole day.<\/p>\n

This summer, Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, said<\/a> schools needed freedom to implement guidance in the way that worked for them, but added: \u201cIf schools need more help to [take action] then we will look very carefully at that because we want to make sure that classrooms are free of smartphones.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new Smartphone Free Childhood campaign is calling for ministers to introduce a full legal ban including funding for schools to pay for a lockable pouch or similar alternative.<\/p>\n

Other backers include the actor Stephen Graham, who appeared in the Netflix drama Adolescence, which dealt with online radicalisation of children, the boxer-turned-mental health campaigner Frank Bruno, the singer Will Young, the website Mumsnet and Jonathan Haidt, the author of The Anxious Generation<\/a>, who says smartphones have caused an epidemic of child mental illness.<\/p>\n

In an open letter to Starmer and the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, they said: \u201cMost schools are relying on children to resist a temptation even adults struggle with. It\u2019s not fair, and it\u2019s not working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calling for a statutory ban, they said: \u201cWe know it can work – schools that can afford this approach are reporting improvements in both staff and student wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Winslet as Ruth and her daughter Mia Threapleton as Freya, in I Am Ruth. Photograph: Joss Barratt\/Channel 4\/PA<\/p>\n

Winslet, who won a Bafta for her role in the Channel 4 drama I Am Ruth<\/a>, where she plays a mother struggling with a daughter consumed by social media, said: \u201cEvery child deserves to be in classrooms that are free from the distraction and highly addictive nature of smartphones. A statutory ban would be a vital step towards protecting the mental health of young people and preserving every child\u2019s right to realising their fullest potential during these precious and integral years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghey said she wanted children to be free to interact face-to-face throughout the school day, \u201cbuilding relationships with peers\u201d instead of being subject to content arriving in the classroom and playground through phones, which she said could include child sexual abuse images, pornography and illegal drug markets.<\/p>\n

Last year, Brianna\u2019s secondary school in Warrington, Birchwood community high school, introduced a pouch system, requiring pupils to lock away their phones. Ghey said the teachers had noticed how noisy the dinner hall became as children socialised face-to-face, \u201claughing, joking, probably some of them were arguing, but this is all part of growing up and figuring out how to live in society\u201d.<\/p>\n

Brianna\u2019s phone use at school led to her being excluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were 120 safeguarding issues around Brianna\u2019s phone use, which ranged from child sexual exploitation to the issues around her eating disorder and self harming,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were also 116 behaviour incidents logged, which [included] Brianna going to the toilet to film Tiktok videos, refusing to put a phone away in class and refusing to go into class because she just wanted to go and sit in the exclusion unit on a phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us knew what to do,\u201d she said. \u201cI just think that if we\u2019d had this [ban], then it would have just solved so many issues \u2026 she was just kind of sucked away from society and into the online world where she was at risk of so many harms. She should have been in school, she should have had her phone away, she should have been socialising with peers and focusing on education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downing Street and the department for education have been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, and the Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet are calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-393695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115138572086982055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}