Esther Ghey: I Lost Brianna Twice — First, to Her Phone, Then to Her Murderers
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This i News feature revisits the 2023 murder of Brianna Ghey and traces how one of her killers moved from watching true-crime content to violent dark-web material before the attack, while separately describing Brianna's own history of heavy social-media use, self-harm, and disordered eating. Esther Ghey is quoted describing feeling she lost her daughter in two stages — first to her phone, then to her murderers — and the piece covers her continuing advocacy for social-media age limits, stricter age verification, and safety-first phone design, alongside her weekly meetings with one killer's mother and her Peace and Mind mindfulness initiative. TechKids Foundation cites this profile for its detailed, association-language account of two separate documented harms — the killer's escalating exposure to violent online content, and Brianna's own self-harm-related exposure — treated by the piece as connected risk factors rather than sole causes of either outcome.
"Esther Ghey: I Lost Brianna Twice — First, to Her Phone, Then to Her Murderers," i News, 3 March 2025.