Trigger Warning: Child Abuse, Starvation,
On August 30, Utah mother and Family YouTuber Ruby Franke and her business partner were arrested after Franke’s 12-year-old climbed out the window of Hildebrandt’s residence and ran to the neighbor’s house asking for food, water and a 911 call. According to an AP News article published September 1, Ruby Franke and business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, were charged with aggravated child abuse of two of her six children.
For those who aren’t familiar with the genre, family channels on YouTube serve as a place where families can share gender reveals, baby naming videos, first day of school videos, and anything parenting related. As for Ruby Franke’s channel, 8 Passengers was started in 2015 by Ruby, her husband Kevin and their six children, whom, for the sake of privacy, will not be named here.
Over the past three years, the channel has been the center of controversy for many YouTube commentators. Many of the channel’s own subscribers have called attention to Franke’s strict parenting techniques, like withholding food from her children, or posting multiple on-camera Birds-and-the-Bees with her teenagers.
With all the news updates, articles and new evidence being uncovered every day, the question remains – why did it take so long for anyone to notice the children’s discomfort around the camera when the channel had around 2.5 million subscribers watching?
Unfortunately, this is a normal occurrence, as a genre of entertainment that was supposed to promote “family-friendly content” has become a hot-pot of child exploitation, invasion of privacy and emotional damage.
With the continued advancements in technology, the 8 Passengers’ case is a warning that shouldn’t be taken lightly. This current generation will be the first to have a digital footprint before they come out of the womb, according to a USA Today article written by Mary Walrath.
Family channels are a violation of children’s privacy and blurs the line between making a YouTube video as a family for memories or making YouTube videos because it pays the bills. Unfortunately, we can’t reverse the loss of privacy and emotional damage that has already been done to the 8 Passengers children, but we help can prevent it by passing proper legislation to protect the children who are exploited by the adults in their lives for content online.
