Parenting Influencer Ruby Franke Accused Of Aggravated Child ...

31 Aug 2023

Forbes

Topline

A family and parenting influencer known for her strict rules and tough consequences has been arrested on charges of aggravated child abuse after a child with duct tape on their ankles and wrists reportedly crawled out of a window and ran to a neighbor's house asking for help.

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SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Key Facts

The Washington County Sheriff's Department website lists Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, as “in custody” as of Wednesday night, and Salt Lake City news affiliate Fox 13 reported it was Hildebrandt’s home from which the child ran, and that neighbors told police he or she looked to be “emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities.”

At least one other child (who was also malnourished) was found in the home, Fox 13 reported, citing arresting documents that claimed that Franke appeared in a YouTube video shot in Hildebrandt’s home days earlier, and therefore would have known about the abuse happening inside.

Franke shot to “momfluencer” fame in 2015 through her YouTube channel called 8 Passengers, where she documented the life of her husband and six children before her channel, which had more than 2.2 million subscribers, was suddenly removed earlier this year.

The channel was the frequent target of criticism for how Franke and her husband, Kevin, disciplined their children: She was accused of starving her 6-year-old daughter after the child forgot to bring lunch to school and Franke refused to take it to her, Insider reported, and viewers called local child protective services in 2020 after their teenage son claimed he had his bedroom taken away as a punishment and had slept on a beanbag for seven months.

A search for “8 Passengers” on YouTube brings up a host of videos accusing the Frankes of abusive behavior, but Ruby Franke has long claimed her parenting style is not abuse but rather meant to teach her children about the consequences of their actions.

Unable to escape the allegations on 8 Passengers, Franke last summer created a new channel with therapist Hildebrandt called ConneXions, which promises to “give you the training you need to create joy in your life and relationships”—but has also been criticized by viewers as extremist and manipulative.

The eldest Franke child, 20-year-old Shari Franke, posted to Instagram Wednesday to say she and her family had worked for years to get the attention of child protective services and asked her 364,000 followers to share any “questionable or concerning” videos from the 8 Passengers or ConneXions accounts with her.

The Washington County Sheriff's Department did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for more information on Franke’s arrest.

Crucial Quote

“We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up,” Shari Franke posted to Instagram Wednesday night. “Kids are safe, but there’s a long road ahead.”

Key Background

Franke is the latest parenting influencer to face criminal charges as the family vlogging industry comes under increasing scrutiny for exploitation of minors. Influencer and mom Jessica Gasser was arrested in Texas earlier this summer for medical child abuse, known as Munchausen by proxy, after officials said she forced her 3-year-old daughter to undergo medical testing and procedures she knew the kid didn’t need. She pleaded not guilty. Taylor Frankie Paul, a staple on “Mormon mom TikTok,” was arrested in February for domestic violence in the presence of a child, among other charges. She pleaded guilty earlier this week. In 2021, TikTok star Marrissa “Digitalprincxss” Cloutier had charges dropped after she was charged with neglect of a child and, in 2019, YouTube star Machelle Hobson was accused of physically abusing her seven adopted children, who said they were beaten if they didn’t want to be in a video. She died before her trial.

Tangent

Parents who use their children to gain internet fame have been increasingly called out for exploiting minors, violating their privacy and relying on children to support their families. Family vlogging, once considered harmless, has been criticized by the children who’ve experienced it and online experts, who say it opens the children up to questionable online exposure and puts unassuming victims in the path of people already searching for sexualized child content online. A New York Times investigation in 2019 found that YouTube’s search algorithm puts what seem like innocent family videos “in the path of users who watched other videos of prepubescent, partially clothed children.”