Franke’s career started in 2015 with her YouTube channel, 8 Passengers, and skyrocketed in an era of family YouTube. Her channel offering, sometimes controversial, parenting advice and showcasing day-to-day life saw Ruby accumulate up to 2.3 million subscribers at its peak, making her one of the site’s best-known ‘momfluencers’. Her glamorous, sometimes old-fashioned image appealed to so many, a version manufactured for entertainment that masked the abuse behind the camera.
In light of a documentary released earlier this year on Disney+, more conversations than ever are being had about how ethical a business family vlogging can really be. Shari Franke, Ruby’s oldest daughter, who was 11 when the channel was first created, is now an activist for the end of family vlogging. The daily videos have become a form of entertainment now so engrained in our schedules that we simply can’t seem to unsubscribe from them.
‘When children become stars in their family’s online content, they become child influencers’
- Shari Franke to the Utah Senate Committee in 2024
In 2015, when Franke was starting out, a wide landscape of family vloggers was already monetising content on YouTube. The Saccone Jolys amongst them, continue to vlog almost daily content of their four kids. Documenting special moments and creating an album of things for the children to look back on are some of the main arguments deployed in defence of the filming, but this begs the question as to how the kids would feel knowing that some of their most vulnerable and private moments have been shared with thousands upon thousands of anonymous viewers.
The permanency and scope of the internet is a hard concept to grapple with for anyone, even those who have grown up with it. Shari Franke has since said that ‘family vlogging ruined my innocence long before Ruby committed a crime…’. The industry is unforgiving, and it is hard to know how much each child understands the ethical and monetary issues that continue to be relevant years after the original publication of each vlog.
After years of exploitation of child actors in the TV and film business, there is legislation in place to place protections on youth, although children featured on YouTube don’t benefit from this same safeguarding as it is often left up to the parents in each case. Having said this, the new expansion of the ‘Coogan Law’ legislation in California and Law S.B 1782 Illinois are paving the way for concrete laws, ensuring correct financial compensation for any children involved in monetised content. But where does this leave the ethical issue of it all and does the compensation really make up for a sometimes unwanted, life online?
The industry is unforgiving, and it is hard to know how much each child understands the ethical and monetary issues that continue to be relevant years after the original publication of each vlog.
Family vlogging may seem harmless enough at first glance, but as viewers, we need to be aware of the realities of longer-term legal, moral and psychological consequences. The industry is so much more than it seems on the surface, and has become a full-time job for many families. Whether family vlogging will remain in our entertainment sphere within the next decade is unclear, but what is certain is that the conversation around ethics is far from over. With more speaking out and as laws begin to catch up with the digital age, the industry will most likely forced to implement changes to the involvement of children online.