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tv   BBC News  BBC News  February 4, 2024 6:45pm-7:01pm GMT

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bye-bye bye- bye for bye-bye for now. here in the uk, the mother of brianna ghey, the 16—year—old who was murdered by two other teenagers, is calling for a ban on access to social media apps for under—16s. esther ghey said the internet was out of control and children needed to be protected. her daughter's killers, scarlettjenkinson and eddie ratcliffe, were jailed for life on friday. she also wants parents to be able to see what they're children are accessing social media on their mobile phones, as noor nanji reports. she was absolutely full of life. she was such a character. she was she was really, really outgoing. and she just she loved attention. she loved to be on tiktok. she loved having all of the likes that she used to receive. and she was the life and soul of the party, really. and everybody knew brianna.
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and anybody who ever met brianna would never forget her. you were in court, then, to hear the sentencing on friday of the two teenagers who took brianna's life. what was it like, being there? it was a difficult day, and it was hard to be in the courtroom because up until now we were in a public gallery, so we couldn't really see both scarlett and eddie. i made a conscious effort not to look at them both. i didn't want to see their faces. i didn't want to directly look at them and see what their reactions were. i feel that the sentence that the judge gave them was right. i don't think that scarlett will come out of prison, ever. i don't think there's any chance of rehabilitation. so i think that the sentencing was correct. she was given a minimum of 22 years. eddie ratcliffe was given a minimum of 20 years. do you think you would ever...
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can you ever imagine a time when you might forgive what they did? i don't carry any hate for either of them, because hate is such a harmful emotion to the person that's holding that. but with regards to forgiving them, i think that... no, no, no, not really. it's incredible to hear you say, though, you carry no hatred towards them, even though they took the life of your daughter. you know, they planned it. they discussed it on messaging apps. you know that scarlett had been on the dark web watching videos of violence and torture. and i think you've just shown then, again, that extraordinary compassion that people around the country have seen in the last few weeks. scarlett�*s mother has thanked you for your compassion. i wonder, did you see her in court?
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i've seen her, but we haven't come face to face. but when i think of their emotions and how they're feeling, itjust brings back how i felt when all this happened in february. because, you know, she looks completely broken, really. and rightly so. she's going through an absolutely horrific time. one of the things you've been extremely careful not to do is to allow brianna's death to be swept into what's often a very difficult conversation about how transgender people are treated. you did say, though, in your statement to the court that this happened partly because one of the teenagers did have a hatred for transgender people. now the court process is complete, do you believe that played a role? i believe that with eddie, there was hate there. there was hate for trans people.
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but i also think that he is a hateful boy, and i think that he would hate many people regardless. so whether it was... i think it was a contributing factor. but i think he's just a hateful person. you have shown incredible strength in this terrible ordeal, that you and your family have been through. but i know now you want to turn your attention to some of the things that you would like to see change, to help other families and other teenagers with the challenges of living in the 21st century. what is it that you would like to change? so, i would like to see mobile phone companies take more responsibility. it's so difficult for parents now to safeguard their children. they carry a mobile phone in their pocket 21w. it's a smartphone with the internet, with all the different social media sites.
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and it's just so difficult to keep on top of what they're doing. so we've set up a petition which we'd like all families and parents to back and sign. we'd like a law introduced so that there are mobile phones that are suitable for under 16s. so if you're over 16, you can have an adult phone, but under the age of 16 you can have a children's phone which will not have all of the social media apps that are out there now. and also to have software that's automatically downloaded on a parent's phone, which links the children's phone and it can highlight key words. so if a child is searching the kind of words that scarlett and eddie were searching, it would then flag up on the parents�* phone. there is software already available.
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i know that schools are already using this kind of software so that if students do type something in that's concerning, it then flags up to the teachers. i feel like it's such a simple solution and i don't understand why we haven't actually done something like this already. why do you think that's needed? so, when brianna was was with us, she struggled with her mental health. and i found out after she was actually on certain social media sites, on pro—anorexia sites and self—harm sites, which i wasn't aware of. it got to, when brianna turned around 14, it was so difficult to monitor her phone because she wanted that trust. and she was very protective over her phone. if she couldn't have accessed these sites, she wouldn't have suffered as much. and like i said, they carry this phone around 21w, and it's just not doable
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for a parent to monitor that. do you think if some of those safeguards had been in place now and there was a flagging system that might have picked up what scarlett and eddie were searching for, that brianna might have been safe? yeah. yeah, without a doubt. i think that, for either one, they wouldn't have been searching that in the first place. and, two, if they did search it, then the parents would know and they'd be able to get them some kind of help. one of the other things you'd like to see is teaching kids mindfulness in schools, to help them deal more with the challenges that come to us all. tell us what you would like to see. and i know also in warrington, in your town, you've managed already to raise lots of money to put this in place in local schools. yes, yes. so i've been campaigning with the warrington guardian to raise enough money to get a teacher in every school in warrington trained in mindfulness.
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it's such an important thing to be taught how to take care of your mental health, how to build mental resilience, and also how to be more empathetic. like, all of these things are skills that you can work on and that you can grow. well, we've got the education secretary on the programme today. i mean, what would you say to gillian keegan? would you want her to make it happen in every school? yeah, definitely. i think that mindfulness needs to be... really, ideally, we don't need, we shouldn't only have one mindfulness teacher in every school. it should be completely embedded into the school system. and also this week, we saw parents in america confront mark zuckerberg, the boss of meta, which of course, owns facebook, and instagram and lots of those other big apps. if he was here, what would you say to him or other social media bosses? i think that the focus is always
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on making such a lot of money, and not really how we protect people, or how we can necessarily benefit society. and i think that greed needs to be taken out of the picture, and we need to focus a little bit more on how we can help each other. and, yeah, it was such a powerful thing to see the parents all standing up to them. it's quite out of control. i heard somebody once call the internet the wild west, and that's basically what it is. and we've kind of got our children, we threw them in, in the deep end of it. and, yes, something needs to change now. and i do feel like we are potentially at a tipping point where we can make things better. hello. it's been a mild weekend for most of the uk.
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temperatures for most of the uk. in a little sunshine getting temperatures in a little sunshine getting into the mid—teens but you can take 10 degrees off that by next weekend because the arctic air is set to return. at the moment sways in the mild air but the cold air will gradually push southwards. but that transition to the cold air brings with it some forecasting issues. we could well have some disruptive snow and it is where that is going to fall that will cause the headache so please stay tuned to the forecast. forthe headache so please stay tuned to the forecast. for the meantime, through the weekend, this was sunday, there tsetserleg picture, stringing back over the atlantic, lots of rain, and the rainfall keeps coming during monday and it's a tuesday as well. 50, 60 millimetres at low levels, perhaps 150 on the highest tops which means a real risk of flooding, the river levels rising all the time, some mountain snow as well, because the cold air is still established across the northern isles. some wintry weather here. further south, isles. some wintry weather here. furthersouth, much isles. some wintry weather here. further south, much milder. isles. some wintry weather here. furthersouth, much milder. in isles. some wintry weather here. further south, much milder. in fact, windy, breezy, mild, misty and murky over hills and coasts exposed to the
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strong and gusty south—westerly wind, once again a strong wind blowing. a better chance of a few breaks in the cloud and it is again mild as you can see for the most part except for the final. temperatures well above the average. but then through monday night and into tuesday it could be that the cold air starts to travel further south, some wintry showers in scotland, rain heading into southern scotland, rain heading into southern scotland, northern ireland, northern england, and again through the rain band the south mostly mild but perhaps the risk of some frost and ice to start across scotland on tuesday morning and some sunshine returning but with some snow showers progressively fall into lower levels. whilst further south it is the rain, the mild and blustery weather to the south, and as that rain starts clear we might well see a little bit of snowjust on the tops of the antrim hills and across the pennines as well and perhaps even a little bit lower as we go through the night, tuesday and into wednesday morning, when there will be a more widespread frost, the cold air more established by that stage. so, wednesday dawns, we think come
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on a cold note for most parts except the south because we have the mild area still around, that rain around through the channel islands and southern areas. but for most it is a bright day, wintry showers mostly over the hills but lower levels in the far north of scotland because the far north of scotland because the cold air has established itself. temperatures closer to the daytime average except in the south. but this is where the headache starts really. how far south will that mild air linger? or how far north will these developing lows come? wednesday night certainly looks like a widely cold night as you can see for central and northern areas. but the mild air starting to push back in. earlier on this low pressure was taken much further north by the model so the risk of disruptive snow was much further north but they have been toing and froing these computer models. that's the biggest problem i think as we get towards the end of the week. mid week onwards and into next weekend. as we get into next weekend we have the cold air getting established but between now and then there is a potentialfor
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established but between now and then there is a potential for more wet and windy weather pushing northwards. it comes into that cold air to give us some snow. and it's where we see the snowfall. i think where we see the snowfall. i think where it falls it is likely to be disruptive. but we are keeping a close eye on the forecast. following on from that it looks set to get colder. and as ever you can keep up—to—date and that's where the weather warnings are are as well.
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live from london, this is bbc news: the united states national security adviser says the strikes against the houthis in yemen will reduce their military capabilities, as us and british forces launch fresh airstrikes. chile's president says the number of lives lost in the deadliest wildfire on record in the country has risen to 64 and will increase further. a new sighting in the manhunt for abdul ezedi — accused of attacking a woman and her daughters with chemicals — the police have offered a £20,000 reward. and facebook marks its 20th anniversary, having risen from a network for students at a single university to one of the biggest internet platforms in the world today. and the grammy awards — celebrating the best of the music industry — are set to be dominated by female artists.

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