In recent years, YouTube family vlogs have been on the rise, with millions of views. One of the largest and fastest-growing family vlogging channels was Ruby Franke and her family, along with eight passengers. The Channel 8 passengers were made by Ruby Franke in 2015, showing off her, her husband Kevin, and her six kids living as Mormons. After Ruby’s arrest, the channel had over 2.5 million subscribers before it was deleted at the start of 2023. In 2020, 267 people signed the petition for Ruby Franke to be investigated by Child Protective Services for abuse.
The reason for the petition was that many of Ruby’s videos uploaded to the channel were taken away by her eldest son, Chad, who said, “My bedroom was taken away for seven months. I was sleeping on a bean bag since October,” In another clip Ruby records her saying, “I just got a text from Eve’s teacher, and it said that Eve did not pack a lunch today” She then goes to explain to the camera and Eve’s teacher that she refused to bring her six old daughter lunch to teach her a lesson and says “shes just going to be hungry,”
In 2021, Ruby interviewed with The Wrap and told them that the channel was “showing what a responsible mother looks like.” Ruby stopped uploading videos to the channel the summer after that interview and said she was splitting off from the channel to Jodi Hildebrandt’s ConneXions podcast. ConneXions is based on ‘universal principles’ including honesty, responsibility, and Humility. It was founded in 2012 by Jodi and was shown to other parents for help parenting their children. Some clips that have been rediscovered recently by viewers were clips of Ruby dismissing children with eating disorders, saying that they are choosing not to eat and lie about it.
On August 30th, 2023, Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested, and according to KUTV News, Ruby and Jodi were arrested on child abuse charges. Officers from Santa Clara came to Jodi’s home in Utah after a neighbor called 911 to report that Ruby’s 12-year-old son knocked on his door asking for help. The police said that her son had been bound with tape around his wrists and ankles, and asked the neighbor for water. Later, the police found Ruby’s 9-year-old daughter, who had been sitting in a dark closet alone for four hours. Ruby pleaded guilty to all six counts of child abuse, and Jodi pleaded guilty to all four counts.
With the rise of YouTube family vloggers, many families want the money and lifestyle of these other family vloggers on YouTube. A 2019 study by Pew Research found that YouTube videos with kids under the age of thirteen have three times more views than videos without kids. Family YouTubers have made millions by simply picking up a camera and filming their kids. Many see this as just wholesome moments with their kids, but as said before, that wasn’t the same as what happened to Ruby Franke and her kids.
