Ruby Franke began posting her family of six to YouTube to show off her Mormon lifestyle and parenting to the world, according to an article by Forbes. At its peak, her channel, “8 Passengers,” reached nearly three million subscribers.

Growing up as someone who dreamed of raising a family, I enjoyed consuming family vlogs and parenting channels. At the time, I never thought of any issues with this content being made, but as an adult, I can see how inappropriate many of these family channels are.

Regarding the Franke family, everything changed for them after August 2023, when Ruby’s youngest son, R, escaped through the window of her friend and accomplice Jodi Hildebrant’s house after Ruby moved in with her children.

Ruby Franke met Jodi Hildebrant through a family friend, Page Hanna. Hanna is featured in the docuseries and discusses her realization that Hildebrant wasn’t who she believed.

On February 27, the first episode of the Hulu docuseries “Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke,” was released. This was the first time the two oldest children, Shari and Chad Franke, and Ruby’s husband, Kevin, shared what happened on film.

According to the documentary, it included exclusive access to over 1,000 hours of unseen footage from the family channel. They showed numerous clips throughout the first three released episodes, showing Ruby snapping at her children and telling them things like “fake being happy.”

I was well aware of this family before the horrific stories of abuse were revealed because clips from their YouTube videos were being shared on TikTok, pointing out Ruby’s abrasive parenting style that I always thought teetered on the line of abuse.

It was revealed in the docuseries that Hildebrant was a licensed professional counselor promoted by the Mormon church, and she became Chad Franke’s therapist but eventually became more involved.

While providing therapy to family members, Hildebrant moved in with Ruby Franke, as seen in the documentary. It is highly inappropriate to be this involved with someone who should have an outside perspective to therapize you.

Even with the signs, reading and hearing about the torture Ruby Franke put her two youngest children in, I remained in a constant state of shock. The documentary showed images of R emaciated with duct tape on his extremities.

I viewed more images too graphic for the documentary, which showed R’s wrists and ankles had deep wounds from being tied down with rope. Seeing something so horrible and knowing that a mother did it to her son because she believed he was possessed is difficult to watch.

I also read Ruby’s journal, which I found extremely disturbing in the rest of the context. She writes about R and E, the youngest Franke, being possessed and disobedient, but I think her writing shows how delusional Franke was and possibly still is.

Some seemingly cold and distant comments include the following quotes from the journal.

“It’s R’s birthday and he doesn’t even know what month it is,” she wrote.

She documented shaving her daughter’s hair as a punishment, saying,

“I cut more off E’s head. We doused her with water in the dog wash. E said she wanted to run away. Jodi told E she has no idea what is waiting for her.”

This entry hurt me the most because no child should ever feel they aren’t loved. Ruby wrote, “E still tried to run. She screamed for another family, water, food, care, love.”

It’s hard to tell if Ruby has now realized that she’s been brainwashed and did horrific things in the name of religion or if she is just admitting defeat to getting caught while still being a monster.

This topic has recently garnished some well-deserved attention because of the alarming number of family channels that feature inappropriate or upsetting videos of minors.

Today, there is only legislation surrounding monetary safety for minors concerning family vlogging, but none to protect children from having their entire puberty documented and presented to the world.

After such a horrifyingly evil case of child abuse from a mother who provided parenting tips for years, I would think more legislation and awareness should be had. It’s necessary that the country looks into family vlogging and implements laws to protect minors from being forced to create content for their parents’ benefit.

Many parenting influencers have been called out on TikTok for inappropriate exposure of their children’s lives. The family vlog I’m most aware of that is using their children as actors in their videos is the Labrant family.

Their children, but also children in general, also need protection from online predators who may only be watching these videos to see the minors, sometimes in vulnerable positions.

They have made YouTube videos about their child having a seizure, with images of it happening and in the ambulance. I find it so disturbing that a parent would ever be thinking about making content or taking pictures when their child is in a life-or-death situation.

I think, in general, the content consumed by our generation has made us more numb, and many of us do think about pulling out our phones in dangerous situations, which should not be our first response.

It also shouldn’t be considered a norm to have young children plastered over the Internet just so their parents can pay the bills.

Kate Beske is a 22-year-old journalism senior from Destrehan, La.