Shari Franke, the eldest daughter of disgraced Mormon family vlogger Ruby Franke, delivered a powerful testimony in front of Utah lawmakers last week in a fight for laws protecting child influencers.
Shari Franke, 21, was on her mom’s popular family YouTube Channel 8 Passengers until February when Ruby Franke was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The defunct web series, which started in 2015, highlighted Ruby’s harsh discipline tactics including starving her six kids as punishment and taking away Shari’s bed for seven months.
“I don’t come today as the daughter of a felon, nor a victim of an abnormally abusive mother. I come today as a victim of family vlogging,” Shari Franke said at the Utah Senate committee hearing on Wednesday.
(Left to right) Shari Franke, 21, and Ruby Franke, 42.
Instagram/Washington County Attorney
Her speech comes as a growing number of states consider proposals for child-influencer laws, similar to the Coogan Law for child actors.
Illinois, Minnesota, and California have all passed social media laws that say adults who use “the likeness, name, or photograph” of a minor in paid online content to set aside a portion of the earnings in a trust.
“When children become stars in their family’s online content, they become child influencers,” Shari Franke continued. “It is more than just filming your family life and putting it online. It is a full-time job, with employees, business credit cards, managers, and marketing strategies.”
“The difference between family vlogging and a normal business, however, is that all the children are employees,” she said. “Children from before they are born until the day they turn 18 have become stars of family businesses on YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms.”
Shari Franke explained that Utah is a popular place for influencer families due to the Church of Latter-Day Saints population.
“We also have large families, which makes family content more lucrative. Specifically, many parents film their regular family life as an online video blog, called vlogging. But I want to be clear that there is never, never a good reason for posting your children online for money or fame. There is no such thing as a moral or ethical family vlogger.”
She noted that family vlogging can be a source of income for those involved, and while the money she received as a child has helped her in adult life, it often came at a price.
“However, this payment was usually a bribe. For example, we’d be rewarded $100 or a shopping trip if we filmed a particularly embarrassing moment or an exciting event. Or other times, simply going on vacation was expected to be payment enough—because most kids don’t get to go on regular and expensive vacations or trips,” Shari Franke revealed.
Unlike child actors on a Hollywood film set, there are no child labor laws for child influencers. Shari Franke also spoke about how some of her quirky coming-of-age moments were captured for the world’s entertainment.
“As a child, I was fully aware I was an employee. The business was successful when I was happy, and when I shared my hardships with the world. Some of our most popular videos were when my eyebrow was accidentally waxed off, and the whole world saw a crying teenager who just wanted to mourn in private. Or the time I was violently ill, and got the leading role in the video for that day. My friends became scarce because dates would be filmed and none of my friends wanted to be on camera.”
“The camera never stops, and there is no such thing as a vacation from filming, ” she said.
Shari Franke will tell more of her story upon the release of her memoir The House Of My Mother, which hits shelves on January 7.
Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com
