The Utah legislature passed legislation in March to help protect minors from being exploited on social media. This new law constitutes an attempt to forestall some of the abuses in the Ruby Franke case.
However, according to Brian Stewart, partner at top law firm Parker & McConkie Personal Injury Lawyers, the core issues that the Ruby Franke case exposed still need to be addressed.
The Ruby Franke Case
Ruby Franke used her position as the mother of six in Springville, Utah, to build a following of millions on YouTube. Yet behind the appearance of a happy Mormon family lurked a secret: Franke was abusing her children.
This truth only came to light when one of the youngest children escaped out a window and asked neighbors for help. Seeing bloody duct tape wrapped around his ankle, the neighbors called the police, who subsequently found the youngest child in the family, a nine-year-old girl, in a dark closet with her head shaved.
Franke’s own journal revealed that she starved her children and forced them to work barefoot outdoors. According to the Washington County case file, she bound her son to weights on the ground and rubbed cayenne pepper into his wounds. Franke justified this conduct by saying the children were possessed by evil spirits.
Franke’s eldest, Shari, also published a memoir describing her mother’s cruelty in pursuit of viral content. Her account includes early signs of child abuse, such as being slapped by her mother when she was six years old. It also details the many times Shari asked the Utah Department of Health and Human Services for help, only to receive none.
“Child abuse often goes unnoticed or ignored, even when there are warning signs,” Stewart says. “In this case, Shari Franke repeatedly tried to get help, but it wasn’t enough to stop the abuse. This happens far too often — children speak up, but their concerns are dismissed, or the system is too slow to act.”
Franke’s abusive tendencies appear to have worsened under the influence of Jodi Hildebrandt, who encouraged Franke to leave her husband and owned the house where the family took up residence.
Jodi Hildebrandt’s role
“What makes this case especially disturbing is the role Jodi Hildebrandt played in isolating Ruby from her family and pushing extreme punishments under the guise of religious ‘purification,’” Stewart explains. “This wasn’t just child abuse — it was systematic brainwashing and psychological torture that used faith as a weapon.”
Stewart’s work on prominent lawsuits featuring domestic violence, such as that of Gabby Petito, has made him an expert on the dynamics of abuse.
“Cases of abuse often involve one dominant figure controlling others, and Hildebrandt’s influence over Ruby made this situation even more extreme,” Stewart explains. “The strange, overly intimate nature of Ruby and Hildebrandt’s relationship raises serious questions about how deep the manipulation ran. This wasn’t just a business partnership — it was an obsession, and that obsession directly led to horrific abuse.”
Franke was arrested for child abuse in 2023. She and Hildebrandt were convicted in February 2024. Both received sentences of up to 30 years in prison.
New legislation for Utah
According to Stewart, the people of Utah were “shocked and deeply unsettled” when the details of the Ruby Franke case came to light,
“The state has strong family values, and the idea that a mother would harm her children in such a severe way is hard to comprehend,” he says. “But beyond that, it’s also forced people to take a closer look at how religious manipulation can be used to justify abuse.”
The state legislature has responded to the concerns in part by passing new legislation that Gov. Spencer Cox signed into law in late March 2025. The new law states that content creators who earn over $150,000 a year with material containing children, as well as the parents of other child actors, must reserve 15 percent of their profits for the children themselves, placing it into a trust fund they can access at age 18. The law also enables former child actors to remove the content in which they appear when they come of age.
Only a few other states have similar laws on the books. Illinois, California, and Minnesota have provisions to compensate children for their contributions to content. Minnesota is the only other state that allows former child actors or influencers, now adults, to remove the content they had featured in as children.
While this legislation is a step in the right direction, for Stewart, there’s still work to do.
Addressing the persistent problem of child abuse
“The Ruby Franke case is horrifying, but unfortunately, it follows familiar patterns of manipulation, control, and abuse,” Stewart says.
It also reveals lapses in the current criminal justice and child protective services systems.
“Once the abuse was finally reported, authorities acted quickly, which was crucial in getting the children to safety,” Stewart says. “However, the fact that it took so long for intervention raises serious concerns. With all the red flags — children being pulled out of school, extreme punishments being justified as ‘discipline,’ and Shari’s multiple reports — there should have been action much earlier. Law enforcement and child protective services need to be more proactive, especially when children themselves are speaking up about abuse. This case is a tragic example of why we need better systems in place to protect kids.”
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