Utah Takes Action to Protect Child Internet Stars

Summary

WSJ Tech News Briefing: Utah Takes Action to Protect Child Internet Stars

Release Date: March 31, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of the WSJ Tech News Briefing, hosted by Victoria Craig, the focus shifts to the burgeoning and often controversial world of child influencers on social media. Titled "Utah Takes Action to Protect Child Internet Stars," the episode delves into the legislative measures Utah has implemented to safeguard child stars from exploitation. The discussion is anchored by insights from Wall Street Journal reporter Zousia Ellenson, who has extensively covered the Ruby Franke scandal—a case that has significantly influenced the new laws.

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Overview of Utah's New Legislation

Victoria Craig introduces the topic by highlighting the dual nature of social media: its allure as a platform for creative expression and its hidden perils, particularly the exploitation of child influencers. Utah has emerged as the fourth state to enact legislation aimed at regulating how parents manage and monetize their children's online presence.

Key Provisions of the Utah Law:

• Financial Safeguards: Parents are mandated to set aside funds for their children, ensuring financial support when they reach 18 years of age.
• Content Control: Once children turn 18, they are granted the right to remove any embarrassing or harmful videos from their online profiles.

Victoria Craig (00:18): “...Utah has become the fourth state to pass legislation that puts guardrails around parents who broadcast their families' lives on Instagram and YouTube and earn mega bucks for it.”

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Catalyst for the Legislation: The Ruby Franke Scandal

Zousia Ellenson explains that Utah's aggressive move towards regulating child influencers was primarily sparked by the Ruby Franke case. Ruby Franke, a prominent mom influencer from Utah, ran a highly successful YouTube channel, 8Passengers, which amassed over 2.5 million subscribers and more than a billion views by 2020.

Timeline of Events:

1. Rise to Fame: Ruby Franke showcased her large Mormon family’s daily life, garnering substantial income through brand partnerships and ad revenue.
2. Public Scrutiny: In 2020, concerns arose when one of their sons revealed he was punished by being made to sleep on a beanbag chair for seven months, sparking public outrage.
3. Fall from Grace: Investigations uncovered severe child abuse by Ruby and her business partner, leading to their conviction and sentencing in prison.

Zousia Ellenson (03:11): “Ruby Franke was one of these mom influencers from Utah, a Mormon family. They had six kids... But things really fell apart in 2020 when one of their sons mentioned casually on the video that he'd been sleeping on a beanbag chair in the basement for punishment for being defiant for seven whole months.”

This case highlighted the lack of oversight in family vlogging and the potential for exploitation, prompting legislative action to protect child influencers.

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Implications for Content Creators and Families

The new law in Utah not only provides protections for children but also imposes responsibilities on parents and content creators. Zousia Ellenson discusses how the legislation has been received by the influencer community.

Feedback from Content Creators: Contrary to expectations, many content creators were supportive of the new laws. The severity of the Ruby Franke scandal made creators more amenable to regulations that ensure ethical treatment of child influencers.

Zousia Ellenson (09:00): “Because of the gravity of the Ruby Frankie scandal, the content creators did not say no. They said, yes, let's go along with this bill.”

Comparative State Perspectives: While Utah is the first conservative (red) state to implement such laws, other states like Illinois and California have also passed similar regulations, albeit with varying scopes and enforcement mechanisms.

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Challenges in Enforcement

A critical aspect of the legislation is its enforcement. The law empowers children once they reach adulthood to take legal action, but proactive enforcement mechanisms remain unclear.

Enforcement Mechanisms:

• Post-18 Actions: Children can petition the court to access reserved funds or remove content once they are legally adults.
• Lack of Active Oversight: There are no dedicated authorities monitoring compliance, placing the onus on the children themselves to initiate legal proceedings.

Victoria Craig (09:57): “What parents have to do... set aside money so that their kids... eventually get paid for this work that they're doing. But what does the enforcement mechanism look like for this?”

Zousia Ellenson (10:25): “There's no social influencer police out there enforcing this law at all. It's all on the kids. I'm very curious about that because... if people aren't really enforcing the law, will people follow it?”

This loophole raises concerns about the law’s effectiveness, relying heavily on victims to come forward rather than having systemic checks in place.

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Cultural Context: Utah's Rise as a Hub for Family Influencers

Zousia Ellenson provides context on why Utah, particularly with its strong Mormon community, became a hotspot for family vlogging.

Cultural Factors:

• Value on Family Life: Utah’s cultural emphasis on family and community dovetails with the family influencer model.
• Economic Incentives: The ability to monetize family life through platforms like YouTube and Instagram offers a viable income stream, aligning with the community’s values of home-based entrepreneurship.

Zousia Ellenson (07:32): “Utah is known for its family life. There's always been an encouragement in the Mormon community for moms to make a living from the home... showing videos, taking pictures of their family... fit with the culture.”

The popularity of Utah-based influencers like Ballerina Farms and reality shows like "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" further cemented the state’s role in the influencer economy.

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Reception and Future Outlook

The legislation has garnered mixed reactions, particularly regarding its enforceability and the potential impact on the influencer economy in Utah.

Stakeholder Perspectives:

• Support from Influencers: Many creators view the laws as necessary safeguards, acknowledging the darker side of family vlogging highlighted by the Franke case.
• Opposition from Social Media Giants: While Utah has moved forward, other states like Illinois and California faced opposition from social media companies, particularly over provisions allowing content removal.

Zousia Ellenson (09:00): “...some influencers said they were going to leave the state... We've had four states now that have passed these bills. Three of them Democratic states, one Utah.”

Looking Ahead: With several states considering similar legislation, Utah’s proactive stance could influence national policies aimed at protecting digital child influencers. However, the success of these laws will largely depend on establishing effective enforcement mechanisms and balancing regulation with the creative freedoms of content creators.

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Conclusion

The WSJ Tech News Briefing episode on Utah’s legislative actions against the exploitation of child internet stars underscores a pivotal moment in the regulation of digital family content. Driven by the tragic Ruby Franke scandal, Utah’s laws aim to provide financial security and autonomy to child influencers, setting a precedent for other states. However, challenges in enforcement and the cultural entrenchment of family vlogging present significant hurdles. As social media continues to evolve, the balance between creative expression and ethical responsibility remains a critical conversation shaping the future of digital influencer landscapes.

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Notable Quotes

• Victoria Craig (00:18): “...Utah has become the fourth state to pass legislation that puts guardrails around parents who broadcast their families lives on Instagram and YouTube and earn mega bucks for it.”

• Zousia Ellenson (01:19): “These are kids who are appearing in influencer videos on YouTube and Instagram and they're extending protections that have normally been extended to child actors...”

• Sheri Franke (02:25): “...most child influencers would probably tell you they have full control over what is posted, but the reality is that their parents bribe and shame them into posting their most vulnerable moments.”

• Zousia Ellenson (03:11): “Ruby Franke was one of these mom influencers from Utah... but things really fell apart in 2020 when one of their sons mentioned casually on the video that he'd been sleeping on a beanbag chair...”

• Victoria Craig (09:57): “What parents have to do... set aside money so that their kids... eventually get paid for this work that they're doing. But what does the enforcement mechanism look like for this?”

• Zousia Ellenson (10:25): “If people aren't really enforcing the law, will people follow it? That's a huge question.”

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This summary was produced based on the transcript and podcast information provided for the episode "Utah Takes Action to Protect Child Internet Stars" from the WSJ Tech News Briefing. For more insights and updates, tune into the Wall Street Journal’s Tech News Briefing.

Transcript

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[Victoria Craig]

Welcome to Tech News briefing. It's Monday, March 31st. I'm Victoria Craig for the Wall Street Journal. Social media can be an alluring corner of the Internet and a canvas of beautiful places encouraging how tos and funny animal videos. But sometimes behind the so called highlight reel of life is a dark side we rarely see. Today we're exploring how states are taking action, especially when it comes to the exploitation of child influencers. Utah has become the fourth state to pass legislation that puts guardrails around parents who broadcast their families lives on Instagram and YouTube and and earn mega bucks for it. With the stroke of his pen, Republican Governor Spencer Cox has extended with bipartisan agreement the rights of child TV stars to child Internet stars. Wall Street Journal reporter Zousia Ellenson has been covering a case that's been the catalyst for action on this issue. But before we dive into that, Zousia, tell us exactly what this new law in Utah does.

[Zousia Ellenson]

Yeah, this is like the protections for the modern child actor. These are kids who are appearing in influencer videos on YouTube and Instagram and they're extending protections that have normally been extended to child actors to them requiring parents to set aside some money for them when they turn 18 and interestingly, giving kids the right to take down embarrassing videos when they turn 18. The reason that this bill has come about is that Utah is ground zero for mom influencers. There are just tons of family influencers out of Utah. You'll see a lot of big Mormon families going about their daily life, filming how they cook meals, how they garden, how they take care of their kids. And it's just become extremely popular. So they're trying to regulate how the kids are treated in some of those.

[Victoria Craig]

Videos and we'll get into that trend in a minute. But first I wanna drill down a little bit into how this bill came about. In the first hearing for it Last October, a 21 year old woman named Sheri Franke spoke to the Utah legislature about the kind of abuse that she had been subjected to as a child of a woman named Ruby Franke.

[Sheri Franke]

The camera never stops and there is no such thing as a break from filming at the time. I tell you, I had a choice in what was filmed, but I've come To learn that every child influencer, in a way, suffers from Stockholm syndrome. Most child influencers would probably tell you they have full control over what is posted, but the reality is that their parents bribe and shame them into posting their most vulnerable moments.

[Victoria Craig]

Zousia Sherry had been the one sort of pushing for this kind of legislation after her mother, Ruby, was sentenced to prison in February of last year for child abuse. For people who are not familiar with this case and this incident, can you just walk us through who Ruby Frankie is and how she was really able to leverage social media platforms to essentially profit off of her own family's suffering?

[Zousia Ellenson]

Yeah, so Ruby Franke was one of these mom influencers from Utah, a Mormon family. They had six kids. They made this YouTube channel called 8Passengers that grew incredibly rapidly to about 2.5 million subscribers. By 2020, they had over a billion view. And they just showed everyday family life, what they were cooking for the kids, how they discipline the kids, how they manage their big family. But things really fell apart in 2020 when one of their sons mentioned casually on the video that he'd been sleeping on a beanbag chair in the basement for punishment for being defiant for seven whole months. And viewers grew alarmed. And then they started to pick apart the videos and saw others sort of what they saw as cruel and unusual punishments by the mom, Ruby Frankie. And the channel really died down. Ruby separated from her husband, Kevin. And then things took a really, really dark turn. She moved in with a new business partner, a therapist. And one day, one of her sons escaped from their new home. And he showed up on the doorstep of a neighbor, pleading to be taken to the police. He was malnourished, hadn't been fed. And police did a really big investigation. They found that Ruby and her new business partner had been abusing these kids, beating them, not feeding them. And these two women, they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison. And it was really this case, the Ruby FR Frankie scandal, that set Utah on the path to try to regulate this practice of family influencers. You know, Utah is a red state. Lawmakers are really wary about regulating family activities. They don't like government intrusion into families. So it was really inspired by this Ruby Franke scandal and her family coming out and speaking for this bill.

[Victoria Craig]

And really, until her children began to expose what had been happening in reality behind the camera, nobody really knew about this. And Ruby and her husband and her business partner, Rabel, to make a lot of money off of this. Right? YouTube is was the platform of choice, but it wasn't just showcasing her family. It was also earning money off of brand partnerships and clicks to the channel and things like that.

[Zousia Ellenson]

Absolutely. So the abuse allegations were really horrific. But even before the abuse grew so extreme, Sheri Franke, her eldest daughter, talks about what it was like to be in an influencer family in her memoir. And she really pulls back the curtain. She felt like she was under constant surveillance and she just wanted to be left in peace, particularly in her teen years. She just said it was excruciating every day to have to perform for the cameras. On top of that, she had all these disgusting online comments she had to read about her and her brother and her family. And so overall, she's been pushing for this bill to have kids paid and have the right to take down content, but she really just wants to end the practice of family vlogging altogether.

[Victoria Craig]

The guardrails are up, but how easy will these new rules be to enforce? We'll be back with WSJ's Zusha Ellenson to talk about that and more after the break.

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[Victoria Craig]

It's human instinct to be curious about things you're not familiar with. And social media has provided us with a steady diet to feed that curiosity. It's allowed people to showcase versions of themselves or their families that they want the world to see. And that content drives traffic to pages and money into pockets. WSJ reporter Zusha Ellenson has been telling us about Ruby Franke, a mom who celebrated the seemingly ordinary life of her family of eight on YouTube that helped her amass more than a billion views on her channel and allowed it to become the family's primary source of income. But she was later convicted of abusing her children in the process of monetizing their embarrassment and suffering. Zousia, Utah, was a place where this style of family vlogging really took off. Just explain why.

[Zousia Ellenson]

Yeah, certainly. So the Franke family got most of their income from this YouTube channel, just to give you an idea, and they had 2.5 million followers. One of the Most popular channels is Ballerina Farms. A woman who has eight children talks about raising her kids in Utah. She was a ballerina. She has over 10 million followers on Instagram. You have this fascination with these Utah moms on TikTok. And there's a new reality show called the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and that's airing its second season. So really having this moment where there's this boom in influencers from Utah. And it's interesting, the state was pretty happy about this because it sort of showcased one of their most prized assets, which is families. I mean, Utah is known for its family life. There's always been an encouragement in the Mormon community for moms to make a living from the home to bring in some money to help the family. They've done like multi level marketing stuff. And now this is another way that they can help the family from the home by showing videos, taking pictures of their family and that sort of thing. So it really fit with the culture. But it all turned sour with the Ruby Frankie scandal.

[Victoria Craig]

And as you mentioned, Utah is not the first state to put guardrails on this industry, but it is the first red state to do so. And as you also mentioned, Sherri Franke, Ruby's daughter, has welcomed this new law, but she really wants to just end this practice altogether. You spoke to a Utah lobbyist who also represented content creators during the negotiations over this bill, and he told you that a lot of the creators were supportive of this new law.

[Zousia Ellenson]

Right. So that was a surprise to me. You might think that content creators would say, this bill is going to make business not worth doing. I don't want to have to figure out how to pay my kids, all that sort of stuff. But because of the gravity of the Ruby Frankie scandal, the content creators did not say no. They said, yes, let's go along with this bill. Let's negotiate some different ways to pay the kids so they got more flexibility in the way they can pay their kids. But they did not put up a big roadblock, which was interesting to this lobbyist. There was one interesting thing I heard from the Illinois lawmaker who passed their law. He said that they wanted to have a provision in there that gave the kids the right to take down embarrassing content like Utah did. But the social media companies lobbied pretty hard against that, he said. And so they took it out. In California, where the bill passed, some influencers said they were going to leave the state. But yeah, certainly we've had four states now that have passed these bills. Three of them Democratic states, one Utah. And there's a bunch of other states now considering them.

[Victoria Craig]

My biggest question is around enforcement of a law like this because it sets out a lot of the guardrails. What parents have to do. They have to set aside money so that their kids, who are really the stars of these shows, eventually get paid for this work that they're doing. But what does the enforcement mechanism look like for this? If we take the Franke case as an example, is it until someone in the family speaks out about it, does someone have to to identify it? Are there regular check ins?

[Zousia Ellenson]

So the way it works is that when a child turns 18, they can go to court and they can get embarrassing or worse content taken down or they can go to court to ask for the money from their parents. But there's no social influencer police out there enforcing this law at all. It's all on the kids. I'm very curious about that because you know how it goes. I mean, if people aren't really enforcing the law, will people follow it? That's a huge question.

[Victoria Craig]

That was WSJ Report reporter Zusha Ellenson. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show was produced by Julie Chang with supervising producer Emily Martosi. I'm Victoria Craig for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back this afternoon with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.

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