Ruby Franke is back in the spotlight today, and not for a comeback. Netflix has dropped a true crime documentary that rips open one of influencer culture’s darkest stories. The film revisits how a sunny family brand, built on faith and rules, hid harm and horror. It is a gut check for viewers, creators, and the platforms that profit off family life as content.
The Netflix Drop, And Why It Hits Hard
The new documentary, Evil Influencer, zeroes in on Ruby Franke, the former face of 8 Passengers, and her collaborator Jodi Hildebrandt. It opens on a 12 year old boy escaping a Utah home in 2023. He was malnourished, injured, and desperate. That moment launched arrests, guilty pleas, and prison sentences in 2024.
This is not just a recap. The film shows how a rigid belief system, a hunger for control, and a monetized family image can fuel real world harm. It captures the split screen of internet fame and private pain. It also forces a question that entertainment rarely asks. What do we owe the children in the content we binge?
A polished family feed is not proof of safety. It is a set. Kids are not props, they are people.
From Family Channel To Courtroom
For years, 8 Passengers sold a strict, wholesome lifestyle. Millions watched homework check ins, punishments, and chore charts. The edits were clean. The values sounded firm. The audience felt close, like extended family.
That image collapsed in August 2023. After the boy escaped, police uncovered evidence of abuse and neglect tied to Franke and Hildebrandt. The pair pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated child abuse. In early 2024, both were sentenced to prison under Utah law. The arc is brutal. A mother who filmed her family’s rules crossed into criminal harm, and the courts named it.
Fans, Parasocial Bonds, And A Hard Reframe
This case hurts because it breaks a bond. Fans thought they knew this family. They watched kids grow up on camera. They trusted a mother’s voice, her morals, her advice. That is the pull of parasocial connection. It feels like friendship. It is not.
Now, old clips play differently. What once looked like tough love reads as warning signs. The tone, the punishments, even the smiles, all feel loaded. Viewers are asking how they missed it. Brands and platforms are asking what they enabled. The documentary makes that reckoning public, and it does not let anyone look away.
When Fallout Becomes Law
The impact did not stop at YouTube. Utah acted in March 2025 with a child influencer protection law. It is a landmark step for kids who appear on camera but do not control the upload button.
What the law does:
- Gives people the right, once grown, to remove childhood content they were featured in
- Requires a trust for minors when family content earns above a set amount
- Forces clearer records of earnings tied to a child’s image
- Signals that consent and pay matter, even in home videos that sell
This is not perfect, but it is progress. It treats online family fame like work that involves children, not a loophole. Other states have moved in this direction. Utah’s bill arrived with urgency, and this case was the wake up call.
The Daughter Who Rewrote The Story
In 2025, Ruby’s eldest daughter, Shari, published a memoir that changed the conversation. She named the abuse she says she lived through. She connected the dots between strict doctrine, public performance, and private harm. Her voice gave shape to the fallout that camera angles can hide.
Her book also hit the core of family vlogging culture. She argued that constant filming and punishment based content pushed the line, then erased it. That claim is heavy, and it echoes across the creator world. The Netflix film adds pictures to those words, and together they land with force.
If a family channel’s “lessons” often involve humiliation or isolation, stop watching and report concerns. Entertainment can wait. Safety cannot.
What Platforms And Brands Must Do Now
Platforms made a lot of money on the 8 Passengers audience. So did advertisers. That is not a small detail. If a kid’s face helps sell subscriptions and soap, the system must protect that kid first.
Here is the next step for the industry. Age out the old rules. Build clear standards for family content. Require audit trails for earnings tied to minors. Give kids a real delete button when they come of age. Fund independent hotlines where viewers and creators can flag harm.
Entertainment is powerful. It builds communities, habits, and profit. It also sets norms. The Franke case shows what happens when a family brand turns into a shield.
The Close
Evil Influencer arrives at the edge of a new year, and it brings a blunt message. The camera changes the home it enters. For Ruby Franke, the house became a set, the set became a story, and the story is now a warning. Fans are rethinking the channels they trusted. Lawmakers are rewriting rules. And the culture is learning, in real time, that fame is not proof of care. The credits roll. Accountability should not.
