Family vlogger’s daughter Shari Franke exposes abuse

The daughter of a disgraced parenting vlogger has opened up about being groomed by a married, senior member of her church.

The daughter of a disgraced Mormon influencer has opened up about the fact that despite escaping her mother’s abuse she was still victimised.

Shari Franke is the eldest daughter of 8 Passengers family vlogger Ruby Franke, who was jailed after she pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse.

Franke was sentenced to one to 15 years for each count of abuse — as was her business partner Jodi Hildebrant.

But, in Shari’s new book The House Of My Motherthe 21-year-old claimed she was groomed by a senior member of the Mormon church who asked her assistance with social media strategy for his business.

Shari, who recently announced her engagement, said at 18 she met a married man who was “high up in the church, a family man and landowner in his late forties,” Daily Mail reported.

The man became somewhat of a father figure to her when her home life was becoming increasingly tumultuous.

Shari Franke is the daughter of 8 Passengers family vlogger Ruby Franke, who was jailed after she pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. Picture: Instagram/@sharilfranke

However, the man started to make comments about her looks.

“Each time he made one of those comments, I felt a twinge of unease. But I tried to brush it off, reminding myself of his upstanding reputation,” she wrote.

Then, when she had a panic attack in his office, the man asked to take off her shirt. He claimed skin-to-skin contact would “help calm her down”.

Shari claimed she tried to push him away but he was strong, and the man allegedly sexually assaulted her. It was her first night as a student at Brigham Young University, USA Today reported.

The alleged abuse would continue while she attended university. The man would text her, shower her with gifts and even co-signed her apartment. He allegedly threatened to turn up to her school and pretend to attack her so she could learn to defend herself — a comment that pushed Shari over the edge.

Ruby Franke from defunct parenting advice YouTube channel 8 Passengers. Picture: YouTube

He claimed he was “training” her for marriage and “pleasing her future husband”.

“‘Never all the way,’ he’d insist, as if this boundary made his actions noble. But he insisted on practising everything else he said I would have to do as a wife, if I wanted to keep my husband happy,” Shari wrote.

Eventually she cut contact after confiding in a bishop. Shari was banned from temple for a month, while the married man, who denied everything, faced no punishment.

However, ultimately, she said: “Ruby had implanted in me very effective mechanisms for intense guilt, shame, and self-loathing. The situation ... was the first real-world instance where I faced the repercussions of this conditioning.”

Last year, Shari spoke at a Utah Senate Committee about being a “victim” and how her mother encouraged her to open up about her life online.

“I don’t come today as the daughter of a felon, nor as a victim of an abnormally abusive mother. I come today as a victim of family vlogging,” she said.

She said she was groomed. Picture: Instagram/@sharilfranke

Shari said she wasn’t speaking to provide a solution to the child influencer industry, but share her own experience and belief that there is no good reason to put your children online for money or fame.

She said it was about more than simply putting your kids online, but that there were ethical and monetary issues involved when children were suddenly thrust into a full time job in the “alluring” business model that is family vlogging.

“Many child influencers are paid for their work, as I was, and this money has helped me in my adult life,” Shari said.

“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 in our lives.”

She said other times the simple fact the family went on a holiday was expected to be payment enough because most kids don’t get to go on trips.

“Nevermind the fact that the child’s labour is what paid for the trip,” she said.

However, Shari said that despite payments made, it shouldn’t excuse the constant work that child influencers are subjected to. She asked what the price was for giving up a childhood.

Shari said that Utah is a hotspot for this kind of content, thanks to the ideals around family and church that are valued by those that live there.

Shari’s mother was arrested in August 2023 after her 12-year-old son climbed out of the window of Hildebrant’s home and ran to a neighbour’s property.

The boy was malnourished, begging for food and water, had been bound with duct tape and had open wounds. Police later found his nine-year-old sister at the same property, malnourished and slumped over a closet.