The Disturbing Truth of Family Channels | The 8 Passengers Saga

[Music] that was [Music] do you know what time it a minute YouTube is the number one most visited website on the Internet's making it one of the easiest and most accessible avenues for anyone looking to monetize their art for some that art comes in the form of animations while for others it could be something along the lines of movie or music reviews with some genres being more demanding than others vlogging for example involved sacrificing your privacy in exchange for a certain level of authenticity documenting both the highs and the lows of your day-to-day life can lend itself to a more genuine experience from the viewers perspective regardless of how exaggerated certain events may be to me the typical vlog is just content for people to live through but it's this personal connection mixed with a stream of highly edited and entertaining videos that makes for a winning combination on YouTube with many of these channels racking up an unprecedented amount of dedicated viewers regularly but what happens when you bring children into the mix and at what point does this steady stream of family-friendly content suddenly drift into exploitation how much can truly go wrong when every my new to detail of your life is presented to an audience of millions I'd say this is a pretty important question at least in the case of a woman named Ruby afraid whenever we start sharing the the details of how we actually parent we get we get a lot of [Music] Ruby and Kevin Frank are the owners of a popular family vlog channel known as eight passengers where they upload around three videos a week documenting their lives for a dedicated fanbase of over 2 million people garnering well over 1 billion total views since their launch in 2015 with her husband preoccupied as an assistant professor at BYU Ruby ultimately runs the show along with her four sisters who also maintain channels of their own all falling under the same common theme of family vlogging if you cut one more thing in my house I'm going to take the scissors look at me and I'm gonna cut its head off I want to tell you something and I want you to really listen we should have been in that crash put him in your pocket so you can take him down to the hamper and drop and give me 10 right put your hands straight out there in they're not supposed to be up shape your hands forward there you go 1 2 down further bring your butt down through her years of lifestyle mommy vlog entertainment Ruby has accumulated a net of almost 500,000 Instagram followers in a rough estimate of 2.5 million dollars though it's hard to imagine Ruby's enormous success without the help of her six children all of which I will be censoring for the sake of respecting their own privacy with two boys and four girls the ages of these children range from 17 all the way down to six years old in fact the very first video on the 8 passengers channel was the gender-reveal of that very six year old meaning this fast-paced YouTube vlogger lifestyle is all this six-year-old girl knows her life has been subjected to the cruel lens of a video camera since she was literally in the womb but hey I'm sure that'll have no greater impact on her development whatsoever and how would you feel if the most critical years of your growth had been exploited for the sole purpose of granting your parents and monetary success in online prevalence in terms of the eight passengers channel the controversy surrounding this lovely couple runs a little deeper than what you may see on the surface at first glance they may seem like your typical run-of-the-mill family simply trying to share their joyous journey with the rest of the world plus a few overly clique baby thumbnails but from what I and many others have observed as of late there seems to be something far more sinister and happening okay so I mean you can agree or disagree with the way a parent goes about discussing puberty with their kids I mean I just learned everything through the internet which definitely didn't stunt my and development at all but I think most people would agree that filming such an awkward moment and uploading it to a family-friendly channel seemingly against your own child's will is a little unnecessary so I just wanted of course there's no way they cannot not film it if they did not film it how are they supposed to make money and pay for your schooling kid kids nowadays have it way too easy back in her day they actually had this outdated thing called privacy I mean right in the same video these kids are pleading with Ruby not to have this talk on camera forget the conversation itself the fact that it's having to be broadcasted countless strangers on the Internet is embarrassing enough in itself imagine having to show your face at school knowing that our kids in your class who have seen you have such a personal talk with your parents any kid that age would be humiliated what about the time Ruby uploaded her 11 year old daughter's first shame or her other daughters for his shave or her son's first shades Julie has been asked if she can shave her legs and armpit I think every girl has a story where they're in a rush it will cut so there's a lot of hair in there actually it's just very bizarre to me quite frankly it's these types of videos that attract not only children but pedophiles creepy old men have a history of putting timestamps in the comments where kids are in compromising positions and to me it's just blatant clickbait doesn't exactly dissuade that kind of attention I remember feeling weird enough already during puberty but the thought of my parents whipping out a video camera and detailing every single event that happened during that uncomfortable phase makes me want a gag maybe a medium would be right do you want to take those and try no not not you don't have to try them on here you can find a dressing room she's all embarrassed so did it work how can you're all embarrassed I'll admit some of their videos are a little more tame than others but when it comes to titles that involve puberty or periods it just comes off to me as a projection of your child's own insecurities to a much wider range of people for the aim of making money and I think it's pretty hard to go about doing that in a tasteful manner wash her face and to remind her to take a bath or a shower I'm gonna give her this it's a little gold ring it's kind of like the one Julie got for her birthday and I'm just gonna tell her that when she wears it to remember that her body is a blessing and it's a good thing and everything that's happening to her is good and remember to take care of it I just keep going back to the thought of having their friends at school being able to access all of this and when I say friends I mean it pretty loosely since it would seem they don't have any according to them you can play your friends these kids have been pretty open with their mom about their lack of friends at school which would honestly be crushing to any mother with a heart but in the case of Ruby it would seem that despite her apparently strict militaristic household it's not hard to see where her priorities live Chad hasn't had a flip phone a smartphone any kind of phone and it's been over a year and I still have no intention every turning a phone Abby we took the phone away from Abby and November and you may you may never get the phone back if I was to go back and read you anything in parenting it would be not to give the kids a phone yeah so there will be basically no technology over the summer well I get it you shoehorn enough of your miserable life into the spotlight that it's only natural for the more negative sides to show themselves but openly denying your child the most basic necessity is a little bit more than 30 seconds out of the 20 minute video as described by the eldest passenger on Instagram I just got a text message from youth teacher and she said that Eve did not pack a lunch today and can I bring a lunch over to the school bonded and just said Eva's responsible for making her lunches in the morning and she actually told me she did pack a lunch like I'm sorry but what did you really expect from a five year old girl my mom is a kindergarten teacher and I know for a fact those snot-nosed cretins cannot be expected to tie their own shoes let alone remember to prepare an entire meal for themselves hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch because then she's not gonna learn from the nut shop so what you just trust it if your kid feels hungry enough by the end of the day she'll learn how to pack her own food more diligently next time you've got a little treat there's some Nutella sticks why did she take the sandwich out and put it in a container oh yeah maybe because she's five she doesn't know what to pick out because she's a child if I had to pack my own lunch at that age I'd be eating nothing but goldfish in gushers five days out of the week my hope is that she'll be hungry and come home and go oh man that was really painful being hungry all day I will make sure to always have a lunch with me I know I'm not exactly experienced in this field but I could never see myself doing that kind of thing as a parent the definition of neglect in most states is the failure of a parent or caregiver to provide needed food shelter clothing medical care or supervision to the degree that a child's health safety and well-being are threatened with harm the first part of that definition should ring a couple bells my job as a parent is to provide for the needs of my kids the needs that they cannot meet themselves you know providing food providing a safe place kids have a really hard time providing their own safe space that is my responsibility they're gonna think you're torturing him stop it I know you're not but it looks like you are I'm only gonna say it one more time and then you're gonna lose the privilege to eat dinner never mind the fact that her youngest daughter somehow slipped away and fell down a gutter or something I don't know I could barely find any information about this one of the reasons also the same kid that like broke a door how do you let this happen first of all what happened Evy no no Donna what's down on this you pretending you're in the ocean and so you broke my door just think if this is the type of thing unfolding on camera it almost makes me wonder what all is happening off-camera worried if dad and I are gonna get divorced you do I did not know you worried about that how often do you worry about that when your mom what the most tired and then your mind starts going to extreme cases what do you hear dad and I yell and fight a lot and there was a time I'll find it I'll find a photo I had just had Russell and Julie was just crying a lot right Ian and one day I looked at her and I'm like you just stink or something she's just because she was being neglected cuz I was totally paying attention to the new baby you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna get somebody to help me with little ones I'm gonna pay attention to you and so I bought her a new little Jessup Walmart it was like one of those dresses you see for like for 89 or whatever really cheap just it was darling cute as can be and I gave her a bath and I brushed her hair fixed it cute and she was good she was better between policing her children's social media suppressing their access to technology and failing to provide food it would seem Ruby's parenting methods are a bit unorthodox you could say the ethical side of Ruby and Kevin were especially brought to the forefront when their eldest son 14 at the time had been shipped off to a wilderness camp in the middle of the desert leaving many wondering what he could have done to warrant such a harsh and otherwise life-altering punishment we decided it was best to clue you guys in on what's been going on a little bit with Chad and why Ruby and I are in a hotel room right now but first we have a sponsor did you know that J and J Aubrey actually stands for Ray J if you ask me his company Ray Khan makes some of the best ear buds on the market but don't take my word for it snoop dogg agrees Drake migos P Diddy Naked Cowboy with an incredible battery life and a simple noise-isolating fid that makes for a comfortable and enjoyable listening experience whether you're out exercising or watching your favorite videos with six hours of playtime seamless bluetooth pairing and starting at half the price of any other wireless brand their latest model the everyday e25 is my personal favorite with an entire range of slick colors right khana earbuds are both discreet and stylish probably sounding leagues better than whatever stupid crummy dumb earbuds you're using now click the link in the description below to get 15% off your order today huge thanks again to the wonderful people at Ray Khan for allowing me to slowly kill myself with Starbucks for another month [Music] on August 9th of 2019 Ruby and her wonderful husband Kevin emotionally relate some pretty unfortunate news to their audience that guy says oh you don't need to bring anything except 36 pair of underwear when Chad hurt me he was like I really I'm going to go live in the desert my underwear it's the music necessary is it really necessary I don't think it's elegant a search ad today has just entered the Anasazi foundation wilderness therapy program where he's going to spend the next eight to ten weeks living in the Anasazi desert yeah the desert mountains of Arizona it became evident that some unspecified behavioral episodes had led the couple to their final decision of sending their fourteen-year-old son to live in the desert to be fixed I guess where he would be stripped of all his basic commodities and forced to adopt a new minimalist rugged way of living the mindset here of course being that this change of pace would give him a new appreciation for the luxuries he has at home assisting him along his spiritual journey with God so the idea is with wilderness therapy is if you can survive with these peers in the wilderness with nothing more than the clothes on your back and a couple of field supplies then there's nothing in this world you can't tackle and they said like it's like the real wilderness out there there's snakes there's bears there's coyotes Cougars like it's the real deal we want Chad to house on those experience I think Close Encounters would be good for him yeah because those kinds of experiences can teach you what's really important and he'll come home and he'll be like dude I survived and there were bears I can do anything I'm not scared at all about that kind of stuff what I lose sleep over is when kids start self sabotaging their own efforts but that's the kind of stuff that really concerns me just to stick it to their teachers or just stick it to their parents or family that and the only person they're really hurting is themselves the anasazi foundation describes itself as a troubled teens wilderness organization specializing in restoring and strengthening parent-child relationships oh and they're nonprofit so they don't pay taxes either although they claim to be against behavioral modification on their websites I did find a Glassdoor review from a former staff member who insisted Anasazi was more geared towards troubled teens by Mormon standards the anonymous trail worker went on to describe the heavily dense Mormon staff as having minimal prior experience with kids let alone troubled ones vaguely alluding to the way certain campers were treated compared to others I understand it's hard to gauge the legitimacy of an anonymous review but the so called therapeutic tab on their website hardly provides any insight to the specifics of their approach it seems to throw out a bunch of vague indefinite terminology that applies to a generally holistic set of principles and although I don't know the specific issues their son is seemingly dealing with it just feels counterproductive to ship any child away to a camp so loose in its approach to treatment like what even are the essentials of the healthy lifestyle and how does teaching these basic things help somebody struggling with substance abuse it's like putting a band a bullet wound it's not exactly the type of information to give me peace of mind like a start-over like I do over like a fresh beginning yeah so like I can't really tell any parent how to raise their kids I don't have the expertise so I'm not exactly in the know when it comes to the way their children behave or at least I don't pretend to know as much as they do but there is nothing and I mean nothing my kid could ever do that would make me think you know it would really help forcing them to sleep on the ground in the middle of the desert call me crazy but that very concept sounds like it could worsen whatever it is they're already going through like I'm sorry Ruby but in what universe would it be beneficial to pluck a troubled individual out of their element in this case seemingly against their own will and throw them into an entirely new environment where they're forced to hold their own against new circumstances they've never been exposed to I wouldn't know how to react I'd feel betrayed to me it sends a message of we don't want you here which can only work to damage the trust necessary between a child and their parent I'm not saying every experience with these camps has to be negative but the dangerous potential of these decisions should not be overlooked either and I know you are you know that there are things that happen in your family that other people don't know about and it's this thing with our family there are things that happen in our family you don't know so just trust us that we're doing what's best I'm really excited for Chad again I don't know what's best for their family I don't claim to know everything that goes down behind closed doors in fact according to her son he had a great time granted he said this in front of his mother on camera along with this so me deciding that my stomachache was Chad's fault it was not seeing things in truth I really really want to blame because I just wanted to be able to eat my dessert and Oreo cookies with out stomachaches and so sue me after another wilderness camp again so you take that as he will chat Q&A where did you go and I saw you and where is that Arizona Tonto National Forest okay why did you go there because I was a bad boy I heard this huge buzz behind me and I looked up and it was a torrential hawk which is like in the top five most painful insect stings scale it's on that scale under poisonous - yeah like that's why they're so painful cause of me oh and that landed on my forearm oh I started crying although it was never really specified why he was sent to Anasazi in the first place we know of some other behavioral complications that led to further punishment upon returning home according to a deleted video on the 8 passengers Channel the now 15 year old got into some pretty hot water after a series of pranks on his younger brother that I woke Russell up at 2:00 in the morning and told him it is a bit all neatly and then packed all his clothes in a suitcase and then he walked out the door back to bed and then that was that was not the reason they lost your room not with all the reasons I pointed a BB gun it would it be began at his face and hung them on the typical if you ask me I think all siblings are going to pick on each other at one point or another that's just how siblings are the pranked me and my sister used to play on each other growing up make some of these look pretty tame by comparison and in my opinion lying to your brother about a Disneyland trip and letting him hang from a basketball hoop is entirely less cruel than what Ruby saw fit for punishment my bedroom was taken away for seven months and you give it back a couple weeks ago Chad showed that he was not able to manage himself sharing a bedroom with Russell so when we moved the bigger room in the basement was automatically his and I didn't have a room it was only revealed in this video from 2020 that the eldest son had been sleeping without a bed since October for over half a year of his life this child was forced to sleep on a beanbag chair because he pulled a few distasteful pranks on a sibling he's 15 I understand one harsher forms of punishment are sometimes justified but I don't know when it would ever be appropriate to take away your child's own bedroom so a lot of you are like hey that's not fair because chai got the bigger the lesser bedroom and Russell got the bigger [ __ ] also got the big bedroom and check out the smaller bedroom and Russell's bigger bedroom also had a bathroom but what you guys didn't know was any room you didn't he didn't get anything he was sleeping on the floor in the family room not only is there an ethical issue with this but think about all the physical side effects that could come from sleeping in a beanbag chair for that long you're just asking for back pay named spinal issues and this was right after he got home from that stupid wilderness camp too so not only did the camp evidently not work but I guess they figured he didn't need a comfortable place to sleep anymore just look at the way Ruby's face changes as soon as he brings it up it feels like we're not even supposed to know about this can't imagine why of course she only kept it under wraps for about seven months maybe I'm a little too soft though right maybe I'm insane I don't know but to me you shouldn't be punishing your child so ruthlessly after their trip to a correctional camp you should probably be rewarding them after such a daunting and distressing experience but yep that's just me maybe I really want my kids to turn out as snowflakes I don't know we need to face challenges we need to face hardships and pain to develop resilience and grit and that's what leads to success in life if we make things easy on our kids all the time they're gonna grow up to be snowflakes yeah and the things that we show and share and the things that many of you are criticizing and calling abusive are actually things that mental health professionals have counseled us to do the most worrisome characteristic I find with parents in these situations is that they don't seem to have insight they don't seem to be aware of how they could be causing harm we see a lot of defensiveness for example in a video that Ruby put on Instagram she said if people were looking at her parenting and being critical those people might be projecting Ruby and Kevin have a unique way of deflecting any criticism back onto their critics becoming overly defensive anytime their own parenting skills are brought into question and although I can kind of understand their frustration I think it's completely within a reason to examine whatever people decide to publicize online in the case of these channels they're explicitly picking and choosing what parts of their life to showcase and assuming these clips reflect reality it's only natural for uproar to ensue I want to go to the grocery store and I want to make dinner tonight I could go denigration and say I'm not a good mom or I'm not as good as other moms because other moms don't make their kids fend for themselves three nights in a row which would be comparison and I don't know that maybe other moms do like I don't know what they do in their homes but what I do know is that I am unchanging and I can choose any day now to go buy more groceries and make a more decent meal and I can feel centered instead of feeling shameful but their parenting is just one piece of the pie you also have to consider the pros and cons of recording certain events to begin with for example is one thing to discipline your kid in private but it's another to do it with a camera shoved in their face only to be monetized where is she baby you are not supposed to open your packages is that mine you know the rule we're not supposed to open packages that are on the part only mommy does that you have a birthday coming up and now you're so your present kids can't exactly consent to this kind of coverage and if it doesn't have enough of an effect on their lives now think about how all of these clips could potentially be used against them in the future there's no privacy some have likened it to living in a transparent house but I think it's actually worse than that if their house was actually transparent then people would have to drive by to see it that would essentially be a passive loss of privacy but by recording everything and putting on YouTube they're engaging in an active destruction of privacy but like I said I'm hardly the first person to take issue with any of this in fact one of my friends ready to glare actually made her own video on this incredible family along with another creator by the name of Sloan I'd love to provide clips of their videos in this one but I'm afraid I can't do that as both of their videos have been taken down at the will of you guessed it Ruby Frank herself you seem that despite the cruel and unusual punishment so frequently enacted upon her own kids ruby remains physically unable to take criticism herself you'd think that a mother who has written an entire book on parenting would be more secure in her methods than to silence those for speaking out against her actions but Ruby likes to keep you guessing you never know what her next move is gonna be in the case of these channels that move was to issue a cease-and-desist but when you have clips like these circulating around I can't exactly say I blame her for wanting them gone what I did was I went around the house I'm serious that's like half my grade right now if you have something in the bag that you would like out you can pay cash for it so you learn the value of your items family vlogging is still news so we don't know the full impact such a lifestyle could have on a developing mind making it one of the more shameless and potentially risky genres on all of YouTube if a parent wanted to make their own channel documenting their personal journey of raising a child sharing advice without said child being involved in the making of those videos I don't see a problem at all but when you begin to incorporate children as young as five and six into your content they become directly associated with your brand the kids are literally the selling points of these vlogs and filming every miniscule moment of your child's life since the day they burst out of the womb not only puts their own privacy at risk but could potentially harm their perception of the world as they get older we've already seen the catastrophic effects Fame can have on child stars in Hollywood so just imagine what that kind of attention could do when you don't even get a break from it in your own home I imagine having a camera shoved in your face must stifle certain experiences in your life and for some of these kids it's literally all they've come to know and to add insult to injury child endangerment laws used to protect those in Hollywood from being exploited are not applied to social media on a wider scale inviting any given parent to just flaunt their child with little to no regulation begging the question of how far is too far to me Ruby Frank is just one of the many parents on YouTube who freely exploit the lives of their loved ones without even a second thought her husband directly enabling this vicious cycle by refusing to step in and do anything certain channels will happily jeopardize the privacy of their children if it means they can turn a profit and make themselves superstars in the meantime to me the blatant stripping of privacy against their child's own will greatly outweighs whatever entertainment value the eight passengers channel may carry underlining the inhumane conditions that come along with exploiting an entire family [Music]

Channel: j aubrey

Views: 2,248,564

Rating: 4.947844 out of 5

Keywords: 8 passengers, 8 passengers ruby, 8 passengers kevin, ruby franke, ruby 8 passengers, 8 passengers vlog, 8 passengers everyday life, ruby franke vlog, mom vlog, vlogging, family vlogs, family vlogging, vlog, vlogs, 8 passengers back to school, ruby franke parenting, ruby franke vlogging, j aubrey, commentary, comedy, satire, the disturbing truth of family channels, family, channels, disturbing, truth, of, the 8 passengers saga

Id: XaL5G5UxuaM

Length: 34min 38sec (2078 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 29 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/redditBlueSpecs]

Yea I made a video about this last week and there definitely does seem to be an emerging consensus (yay) that family vloggers are toxic and YouTube needs to do more to safeguard children from their clout chasing/money grabbing parents.

The Family Vloggers Need Stopping

[u/NettoHikariDE]

The topic interests me, but the way the dude speaks is just...

[u/acrystalroze]

Forget the therapy fund. They better set up a bail fund. Because their militant stances are going to create some dangerous adults. That poor Chad needs deep therapy already. They keep going and he is going to be a danger to women everywhere thanks to his mother. JFC

[u/gravy75]

Wow fuck these people!

[u/acrystalroze]

She is a complete pos parent. Period. JFC I hope they have a therapy fund set up.

[u/Hearthacnut]

That intro is fucking sick tho

[u/RoadRoller1]

Oh hey j aubrey is here

[u/CobylovesDodges]

I watched the entire vid and was thinking “what the fuck” the whole way. But when it came to them buying back shit they own like THE DUDES HOMEWORK, I said it out loud.

Fuck these kinds of parents.

[u/kaliV12]

She looks crazy and evil.