Ruby Franke’s children will forever face the trauma of what she put them through.
During an appearance on the “Sunday Sports Club” podcast on Sunday, December 14, Ruby’s eldest daughter, Shari Franke, spoke about her family and their experience vlogging their lives for years on the “8 Passengers” YouTube channel.
Shari, 22, shared how being childhood content creators impacted her relationship with her siblings, particularly her brother Chad, 20. (Ruby, now 43, also has four younger children with her ex-husband, Kevin Franke, who regained custody of the kids following her child abuse conviction and their divorce.)
“It really starts to affect, like, our family relationships offline as well,” Shari told host Allison Kuch of the impact of “turning kids into content,” adding, “It affected my relationship with my brother for a while. Like, we can’t stand next to each other in pictures and we can’t give each other hugs. And, you know, we joke about it now, but for a while it was, you know, a genuine thought.”
Shari said there were even instances when people questioned her and Chad’s relationship, which led them to mistrust each other.
“I had to go to the hospital for something, and I posted a picture about it, and I got a lot of people that were like, ‘Oh, are you having your brother’s abortion?’ Like, from his baby. As a 17-[year-old], I mean, as any regular person, that’s awful,” she said. “It affected my relationship with him off the camera. So, things like that, I think had just added up over the years … I think realizing that 13-year-old Shari is always on the internet, and always will be, made me want to help other kids not have to go through that.”
Shari, whose book The House of My Mother details the abuse her family faced under Ruby’s supervision, went on to say that you can never know what’s going on behind closed doors when it comes to following individuals and families on social media.
“You are never going to see the footage of the parents yelling at the kids because, you know, why would they air that? You’re never going to see it,” Shari claimed. “And so, there’s just no possible way to know that what happened to my family isn’t also happening behind [the] camera to someone else. I think that is one thing that people have a misconception of, is they look at my family and they’re like, ‘Well, your mom was just crazy. Everybody else [with] family content, that wasn’t the issue. It was your mother that was the issue.’ And that definitely compounded on the problems. But family vlogging still was, kind of, the base.”
Further in the episode, Shari went on to say that although most families may claim they start vlogging to share their experiences with others, it’s most likely more so for the money they can earn while doing it.
“Most family content creators would probably say, like, ‘Oh, we started because we want to share our family and keep our memories.’ And, in that case, you can share on a private account, that achieves your purpose. And so, at some point, money does become a contributing factor and if you deny it, then like you’re lying to yourself,” Shari said.
Ruby Franke, who used to chronicle her large brood’s daily adventures on their “8 Passengers” YouTube channel, has been arrested. The YouTube personality, 41, was booked on Wednesday, August 30, in Springville, Utah, on two counts of aggravated child abuse. According to the Washington County Sheriff Department website, she is currently in police custody. Franke […]
Shari added that it’s on the adults making decisions for their children to know how the online attention could ultimately affect them in the long run.
“Why do they want that? Because they get money, they get fun trips, they get cool products. [Kids are] not seeing the long term impact of that,” Shari said of minors who tell their parents that they’re OK with being recorded. “And it’s on the parent to be able to say, ‘I know that this seems fun but you’re not capable of thinking of how this could affect you when you’re an adult.’”
The Frankes were at the center of a scandal in 2023 after Ruby and her life coach friend Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested on multiple counts of aggravated child abuse. The arrests came after Ruby’s youngest son, who was 12 years old at the time, escaped from Hildebrandt’s Utah home that August and asked for help from a neighbor. Authorities noticed that the child was malnourished and had duct tape on his ankles and wrists. His younger sister, who was 10 at the time, was in a similar state.
Ruby and Hildebrandt pleaded guilty and were both sentenced to four consecutive prison terms for subjecting the children to “physical torture.” They are currently incarcerated.
Shari and Chad had already moved out of the family’s home at the time, but Shari attempted to call Child Protective Services (CPS) and the authorities multiple times to protect her younger siblings as she grew very worried of Ruby’s behavior.
Two years later, she’s now urging people to think twice about following families online as she fights for a bill to be passed that would safeguard child influencers.
“I don’t hold anyone accountable except for [Ruby] and Jodi and what they did. I don’t blame the viewers,” Shari said of her family’s situation. “Where I would hold people accountable is for still supporting family content creators. That’s something that they can directly control, is their own consumption of it.”
To report child abuse, consult the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Welfare Information Gateway for state-specific reporting phone numbers.
