Brianna Ghey's mum Esther discusses campaigning on BBC Breakfast

Esther appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning, Thursday, to talk about her current campaigning.

This includes her pushing for better mental health support for children as well as tighter regulations on social media use.

Speaking to correspondent Angus Crawford, Esther said she is doing ‘okay’.

“Many people in your situation would want to hide away from the world, they might want to back away from the world, but you have decided to go out there,” Angus said.

“What is driving you? Where do you gain your strength from?”

Esther replied:” I would say that I gain my strength from Brianna really.

“I have learned so much from Brianna.

 “She didn’t hide away, and she pushed herself and put herself out there.

“She wanted to be who she wanted to be and she was brave enough to put herself out there.

“And from my experience of being a mother and having a child who struggled with mental health, and also with what happened to Brianna, I think it is time for me to be as brave as Brianna and to push myself out there and try to make a change.”

READ MORE > Vigil held in Warrington for Brianna was 'absolutely beautiful' Esther tells BBC

Following Brianna’s murder, Esther is now calling for social media apps to be banned on smartphones for under 16s.

Brianna and Esther (Image: Esther Ghey)

She is campaigning for new laws ‘making mobile phone companies take more responsibility’ in helping parents safeguard children online and monitor their internet usage.

It comes after she previously spoke of how child-safe phones monitoring young peoples’ internet use would ‘without doubt’ have saved her daughter’s life.

So far, more than 90,000 people have signed the petition.

In this morning’s interview, Esther was asked if there is a parental duty for parents to ‘willingly ration’ how children use their mobile phones.

She was also asked if she feels any guilt about how much she allowed Brianna to use her phone.

Esther said: “Yeah definitely.

“There’s always that guilt there and maybe I should have done more but also from a very realistic point of view, we are expected to work full time, we look after our children, we have got to keep a house, we have now got to keep up to date with all of the tech available.

Brianna was just 16 when she was killed in February (Image: Esther Ghey)

“Young people are now so much more savvy than parents and they have got so much more free time to really teach themselves how to use phones and there are new social media apps that are coming out all of the time and I just don think it is feasible to do that.

“And it was also a big argument point in our house for me to try and limit Brianna on her phone and yeah I feel like it’s not only the parents responsibilities, but also the responsibility of the government and tech companies as well.”

It was revealed that Esther is hoping to meet the Prime Minister to discuss her campaigning.

She said that her message to him is that more needs to be done to protect children online and that although the Online Safety Bill is a step in the right direction, she believes it is not necessarily going to be enough to protect children.

Esther said she has no plans to stop campaigning.