Utah on Tuesday passed new protections for children of social media influencers after the child abuse conviction of former YouTube star Ruby Franke.
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law that gives kids a way to remove media they are featured in from the internet. It also orders parents who make more than $150,000 off the content annually to set aside 15 percent of those earnings into a trust fund that the children can access once they turn 18 years old.
Cox signed the law under encouragement from Franke’s now ex-husband, Kevin, after he told lawmakers earlier this year that he wishes he never let his ex-wife post their children online, The Associated Press reported.
“Children cannot give informed consent to be filmed on social media, period,” he said. “Vlogging my family, putting my children into public social media, was wrong, and I regret it every day.”
Kevin and Ruby Franke launched a family YouTube channel titled “8 Passengers” in 2015. Ruby Franke documented their life as a Mormon family in Utah and became close with parenting content creator Jodi Hildebrandt, who encouraged her to cut off ties with Kevin Franke and move the youngest two children into her home.
Ruby Franke’s 12-year-old son, who was emaciated, escaped through a window and knocked on a neighbor’s door. The two women were arrested on child abuse charges. The eldest child detailed his mother’s obsession with “striking content gold” and looking for views on videos at the expense of her children.
The new Utah law applies to children who are featured in online content as well as those who appear in TV or movies.
Eve Franke, 11, who police found emaciated with her head shaved, wrote a letter in support of bill and noted that sometimes YouTube is a good thing that “brings us together,” but said “kids deserve to be loved, not used by the ones that are supposed to love them the most,” The Associated Press reported.
Several other states have taken steps to protect children from online exploitation in the content-creation industry, including Illinois, California and Minnesota that protect a child’s earnings.
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