Utah Family Vlogging Bill Passes Committee After Franke Family Testimony

by Emily Washburn | February 20, 2025 | Culture

Utah legislators advanced a bill protecting child performers and social media stars this week after members of the Franke family testified to the harms of family vlogging (video blogging).

House Bill 322 requires parents of child performers, including children featured in family vlogs, to deposit 15% of their child’s income in a trust. The legislation also establishes a pathway for adults to remove social media content they starred in as kids.

The House Business and Labor Committee unanimously approved HB 322 after hearing from members of the Franke family.

Kevin and Ruby Franke posted daily videos of themselves and their six children to YouTube for years. At its height, their channel, “8 Passengers,” boasted more than two million subscribers.

The Franke’s carefully curated family image shattered in August 2023 when police arrested Ruby and her business partner, Jodi Hildenbrandt, for mistreating Ruby’s youngest children. Both women are serving prison sentences for aggravated child abuse.

In the two years since Ruby’s arrest, Kevin and the Franke children have become prominent critics of family vlogging.

“Had [this bill] been in place when my family was doing YouTube, my mom would not have been able to withdraw all my savings from doing YouTube,” Kevin read a statement for the Business and Labor Committee on behalf of his daughter, Julie. “This bill will prevent other kids from having to go through the pain of realizing that the compensation for years’ worth of time and effort is suddenly gone.”

Representative Doug Owens, the bill’s sponsor, emphasizes that HB 322’s financial protections only apply to family vlogging channels making more than $150,000 a year, like “8 Passengers.”

Dave Davis, a lobbyist for family vloggers, says his clients won’t oppose the legislation.

“They can make it work if it’s the will of the body to move forward in this direction,” he told a local news station.

While the Franke’s eldest daughter, Shari, supports all restrictions on family vlogging, she warns that money doesn’t compensate for growing up in a more invasive iteration of reality TV. She was eleven when “8 Passengers” started.

“If I could go back and do it all again, I’d rather have an empty bank account now, and not have my childhood plastered all over the internet,” she told the Business and Labor Committee in October. “No amount of money I’ve received has made what I experienced worth it.”

Often, she recalled, money was used to entice her and her siblings to film increasingly embarrassing and vulnerable videos:

Payment was usually a bribe. For example, we’d be awarded $100 or a shopping trip if we filmed a particularly embarrassing moment or an exciting event in our lives.

Kevin, for his part, wishes he could turn back the clock.

“Vlogging my family — putting my children into public social media — was wrong, and I regret it every day,” he told the committee. “Children cannot give informed consent to be filmed on social media, period.”

Focus on the Family’s Plugged In helps families navigate our technological age. While not all family vlogging channels are exploitive, it cautions parents against using children for content and revenue.

Growing up is tough enough. Growing up in the public eye is exponentially tougher. While lots of wonderful families live out their lives on YouTube, it’s inherently dangerous to commoditize those lives for public consumption.

Kids should be kids first — not entertainers, and certainly not employees.

The Franke’s youngest daughter, Eve, articulated a remarkably similar thought to the Business and Labor Committee on Tuesday.

“I’m not saying YouTube is a bad thing,” she wrote. “Sometimes it brings us together. But kids deserve to be loved, not used by the ones that are supposed to love them the most.”

HB 322 will be brought before the Utah House of Representatives for a vote in coming months. If advanced, the bill will go to the state Senate for approval.

Additional Articles and Resources

Plugged In

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