Kyla Currie | Opinion Editor
April 3, 2025
Known for her wildly popular YouTube channel “8 Passengers,” Ruby Franke, a mother of 6 and former Mormon family vlogger has fallen from grace. Alongside her husband, Kevin Franke, they shared hundreds of videos on parenting advice and their personal experiences, building up to 2 million followers on YouTube. Junior Izzy Daniels said, “they were my favorite YouTube channel growing up and I couldn’t wait to watch them every night.” However, recently, her harsh parenting styles drew criticism, while many started to accuse Ruby of being too strict and controlling towards her kids.
This controversy first escalated in summer of 2023 when Franke was arrested with multiple charges of child abuse. Her comments began to become filled with hate comments and they were loosing hundreds of followers weekly due to her controversial parenting tactics being shown in her YouTube videos. The most popular incident being leaving her oldest son without a bedroom for 6 months and forcing him to sleep on a sleeping bag, for not participating in the YouTube videos. The authorities quickly acted after her youngest son escaped from a residence to seek help, while showing multiple signs of physical abuse and malnourishment. The husband still remains so-called “uninvolved” yet there is speculation of his part during the abuse going on. The home that he and his younger sister were rescued from, belonged to Jodi Hildebrandt, their former therapist and Ruby’s business partner who was also involved in the abusive parenting.
This surprising new case shocked fans and has ignited new discussions about family vloggers across social media. Junior Rylee Kervick, a former 8 passengers fan, wonders “how many other family YouTube channels are like this.” Ruby Franke’s arrest underscored many new concerns about the exploration of children on social media and has raised many questions about the lack of oversight regarding online family content.
To learn more about this story, there have been several new documentaries that have come out, one being “Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.”
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