Springville, UT – On August 29, 2023, Ruby Franke, the mother and parental figure in charge of the well-known YouTube channel “8 Passengers” was taken into police custody on six counts of child abuse, following the report made by a neighbor of her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt. The neighbor was approached by her youngest son, Russell, who in order to get out of Jodi’s house, which he was forcibly kept in, had to climb out of the basement window to be able to find assistance for himself and his younger sister. 

When the police got there, they found both young children severely malnourished with open wounds covered in duct tape, with their limbs tied together with pieces of rope. The fact that this was not done in their own home, shows that Ruby’s coworker not only knew about, but condoned this parenting style, as it had happened under her roof. She was later found guilty of assisting and supporting Ruby’s self-proclaimed “strict” parenting style, as she had said herself in their joint podcast. In the podcast, they talked about different ways of dealing with kids, and parenting lessons that helped target “difficult” children. 

Before this, Ruby had been in charge of their family channel, which she had started in 2015, and commonly produced content outlining family experiences, and the harsh realities of her six children while under her roof. Since their channel began to gain traction, in around 2020, viewers commonly commented on the way she disciplined their kids and deemed it “cruel” and “unnecessary” as she commonly showcased the unusual and severe ways she punished them for even the smallest of mistakes. 

Ruby’s behavior began seriously alerting viewers in mid-2019 when she broke the news to the channel’s viewers that their oldest son, Chad, had been sent to a reformation wilderness camp after pulling a small prank on his younger brother. Due to this, he had been away from home, missing school for almost two months after a summer away. In another instance, Ruby was seen telling two of her daughters, who were fighting, that if they didn’t resolve the argument immediately, she would limit their access to food indefinitely. Fans became worried for the children’s safety because Ruby continued making questionable comments and applying flawed logic to educate her children, with her reasoning simply being: “They need to learn somehow”. 

Similarly, another family channel mother was called out for neglecting and mistreating her children gravely. The woman’s name was Jordan Cheyenne, and in the summer of 2021, she was called out by viewers for accidentally posting an unedited version of a very emotional vlog on her self-titled channel. In the video, she broke the heartbreaking news to her son and the viewers that their recently adopted puppy had a life-threatening virus commonly found in young unvaccinated dogs. After the video ended, a clip she had originally meant to cut out was left in, in which she instructs her 9-year-old son, Christian, on how to cry so that she could get a thumbnail photo when she uploaded the video. In the clip, he’s heard telling his mother, “I’m actually crying mom, this isn’t fake”. Shortly after, Cheyenne deleted all of her social media accounts, including the channel, after numerous critiques by the media and outraged fans, who were extremely disappointed with the way she coached her son for content instead of comforting him and being there for him through such a tough revelation. 

In the media, specifically, recently, it’s becoming alarmingly common for parents to exploit their children for exposure and money, and frequently, their kids are not asked if they feel comfortable with their lives being documented and put online for anyone to see. This usually ends with severe mistreatment on behalf of the parents, as they become insistent with their kids putting out content, even if they have to do it against their will. Even though some parents of family channels may start off with wholesome intentions, they can commonly be the cause for the abuse and neglect of children, due to the fact that if a channel becomes popular enough, videos will begin to be monetized, and the family can begin to make a profit off of their videos. As seen in many cases, this drives parents to create more and more content, with each video being bolder and more daring than the last, so that more people will begin following them in order to continue making money off of their platform. Often, the most intriguing factors of these types of profiles are the children, and the way their caretakers decide to parent them. This sadly means thatmeans, that oftentimes, young kids and toddlers in the media, who can’t stand up for themselves are put online without consent, and usually have no say in their image. Due to the Ruby Franke case, this issue has been brought up more. It has made the public more attentive to signs of abuse in adolescents in the public eye, specifically on platforms like YouTube where full-length videos are uploaded for all types of different reasons.

References 

Franke, C. (2019). Family Picture. SK Pop. Pop Culture News. Retrieved August 14, 2023, from https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/i-m-contact-immediate-family-8-passengers-da ughter-shari-franke-speaks-parents. 

Jain, S. (2021, September 15). YouTuber deletes channel after she’s caught telling son to “Act like you’re crying.” NDTV.com. 

https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/youtuber-jordan-cheyenne-deletes-channel-after-shes-caug ht-asking-son-to-act-like-youre-crying-2541504 

Raphael, S. (2020, June 3). Why are some viewers accusing the mom from 8 passengers of abuse?. Distractify. 

https://www.distractify.com/p/8-passengers-abuse-controversy#:~:text=They%20said%20 that%2C%20because%20of,Therapy%20Program%20for%2010%20weeks. 

Strohmeier, S. (2023, August). Behind the cameras: The truth and dangers of family vloggers. The Panther. 

https://www.thepalmettopanther.com/behind-the-cameras-the-truth-and-dangers-of-famil y-vloggers/ 

Tolentino, D., & Rosenblatt, K. (2023, August 31). Who is Ruby Franke, the mom of the 8 passengers YouTube channel arrested on abuse charges?. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/ruby-franke-mom-8-passengers youtube-channel-arrested-abuse-charges-rcna102852