Ruby Franke, the mother from the 8 Passengers YouTube channel, has been arrested for child abuse.
Family channels on YouTube have been a divisive topic for a while now. What happens behind the camera if the children don't want to play along? Well, we got the ugly truth of what can happen in that situation when Ruby Franke from the 8 Passengers YouTube channel has been arrested for aggravated child abuse.
The 8 Passengers YouTube channel is a family vlog featuring the lives of Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve, along with their parents Ruby and Kevin Franke. The channel shows their daily activities, milestones, and challenges, offering a glimpse into contemporary American family life.
Ruby Franke: Child Abuse Allegations Explained
Family Vlogs on YouTube broadcast the most intimate and vulnerable moments of children and young adults to an audience, and have been heavily criticized because of this. In the case of 8 Passengers, they garnered an audience of 2.3 million subscribers, following their journey.
The parents, Ruby and Kevin Franke have been suspected of mistreating their children for a while now, because of claims their very own children made public.
In one such case, their son Chad claimed Ruby and Kevin kicked him out of his room for almost half a year because of a prank he pulled on his brother.
But not only the children talked about their parent's abusive behavior, they even did so themselves! Ruby Franke was regularly featured videos of the ConneXions YouTube channel giving parenting advice. In one video, she allegedly claimed that, to punish their kids for acting selfish, she and her husband decided to pull them out of school and not give them any Christmas presents!
That connection to ConneXions might have been what broke the Camel's back as both Jodi Hildebrandt (the founder of ConneXions) and Ruby Franke have been arrested on August 30, 2023.
According to Fox 13, the two women were arrested on two charges each of aggravated child abuse.
In a press release, the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department revealed that reports of an “emaciated and malnourished [child], with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities” started the investigation which led them to the home of Jodi Hildebrandt. There, authorities found another child in similar condition, both children had to be transported to a local area hospital.
It looks like Ruby Franke was somehow involved in this situation, as she was reportedly arrested together with Jodi Hildebrandt.
In response to this, her eldest daughter Shari Franke posted a story on Instagram, stating how she and her family “are so glad justice is being served”.
Apparently they've “been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this”, implying that this abuse has been going on for a while now!
So far it is not quite clear how things will unfold after the arrest, but with how serious these charges are and how her family was apparently aware of the situation, she might have a hard time debunking them.