Org Report

Petition: Change the Law to Make Phone Companies More Responsible for Children's Online Welfare

Feb 2024 🇬🇧 Peace and Mind UK (Esther Ghey)

Suicide and self-harm are complex and never caused by one factor alone. Problematic screen use, cyberbullying, harmful content, and online exploitation may increase risk or intensify existing distress. If someone is in immediate danger or emotional crisis in the United States, call or text 988.

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This Change.org petition, started by Esther Ghey through her Peace and Mind UK initiative days after her daughter's killers were sentenced, calls on mobile phone and social-media companies to accept greater responsibility for children's online welfare — specifically asking for age limits on smartphone use and stricter controls on social-app and unsupervised internet access. The petition text describes Brianna's killers as having used the internet to plan the attack and states that Brianna herself had accessed pro-eating-disorder and self-harm content on her phone. It has drawn well over 120,000 signatures. TechKids Foundation cites this petition as a primary campaign document authored by Ghey's own organization, phrased here as the petition's own claims about her daughter's documented online exposure rather than as an independently verified account.

120,000+ signatures

The petition had surpassed 120,000 signatures as of this entry's review date; as a live, ongoing petition its count continues to change.

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CITATION

Esther Ghey / Peace and Mind UK, "Change the Law to Make Phone Companies More Responsible for Children's Online Welfare," Change.org petition, launched 3 February 2024.

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