Ruby Franke’s daughter, Shari Franke, appeared in front of Utah’s House of Representatives to alert them about the dangers of family vlogging, pleading with lawmakers to give child influencers more protections.
Disgraced family vlogger Ruby Franke is currently behind bars on four counts of felony child abuse after she was arrested in August 2023 when two of her children were found “malnourished” with “open wounds.”
Since then, Franke’s children have openly decried their mother’s actions — and now, one of her daughters is doing all she can to prevent child exploitation via family vlogging.
Jodi Hildebrandt (left) and Ruby Franke (right) often collaborated together to make content for ConneXions’ YouTube channel. Now, the two are facing jail time for felony child abuse.
On October 16, Shari Franke shared photos of herself in court on Instagram with a lengthy caption explaining her mission to end the practice.
“When children become stars in their family’s online content, they become child influencers,” she wrote. “It is more than just filming your family life and putting it online. It is a full time job, with employees, business credit cards, managers, and marketing strategies.
“The difference between family vlogging and a normal business, however, is that the employees are all children. Children, from before they are born to the day they turn 18, have become the stars of family businesses on YouTube, Instagram, and most other social media platforms.”
Franke went on to call into question the true toll of children forced to be unwilling employees in their family’s content, getting put on display in their darkest moments for the sake of views.
“Some of our most popular videos were when my eyebrow was accidentally waxed off, and the whole world saw a crying teenager who just wanted to mourn in private,” she explained.
“Or the time I was violently ill, and got the leading role in the video for that day. My friends became scarce, because dates would be filmed and none of my friends wanted to be on camera. The camera never stops, and there is no such thing as a vacation from filming.”
Ultimately, Shari said that if she “could go back and do it all again, I’d rather have an empty bank account now and not have my childhood plastered all over the internet,” arguing that “no amount of money I received has made what I’ve experienced worth it.”
Ruby Franke famously created the ‘8 Passengers’ YouTube channel that chronicled her life with her husband and their six children. However, the family’s content came under fire in 2020 due to certain punishments doled out by Ruby, which included taking away her son’s bedroom and forcing him to sleep on a beanbag chair for nearly six months.
In August 2023, both Franke and collaborator Jodie Hildebrant were arrested on suspicion of aggravated child abuse. Both women were sentenced to four terms of one to 15 years in jail, but neither will serve longer than 30 years.