Kevin Franke supports Bill for the protection of money that children ensure influencer content

Kevin Franke told the Utah legislators that he wished that he had never allowed his ex-wife Ruby and asked the legislator to say goodbye to a legislative template that could protect other children financially if their parents include them in their influencer content .

“I was wrong to make my family, to bring my children to public social media, and I regret it every day,” said Franke on Tuesday and showed before the house, employment and trade committee to support HB322.

The legislative template, which the committee passed unanimously, would have to mandate these children if adults ask for the content in which they appeared as children to be removed from web platforms.

“Children cannot give a declaration of consent to be shot on social media,” said Franke in a statement that he read to the committee. “If, as adults, we cannot understand the emotional and psychological effects of sharing of our life on millions of strangers online, how can we expect our children to understand them?”

Franke called the draft law “a big first step in the protection of children’s influencers here in the state of Utah, and there will be much more to do in the future.”

Ruby Franke started a YouTube channel in 2015 entitled “8 Passengers” entitled “8 Passengers”, which highlighted himself, Kevin, her six children and her life in Utah. The channel deserved 2 million subscribers before it was deleted in 2022 when Ruby and Kevin separated. Ruby Franke and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt then started a new channel that was based on a self -improvement program Hildebrandt.

Everything fell apart in August 2023 when the 12-year-old son of Frankes from Hildebrandt’s house in Ivins escaped and a neighbor named police because the boy was malnourished and had adhesive tape on the ankles and wrists. After an investigation, more abuse of other Franke children, Ruby Franke and Hildebrandt, found four cases of severe child abuse, and each were sentenced to at least four years in prison.

At the hearing of Tuesday on Tuesday, Kevin Franke said: “I have to share my own story and trip when I’m ready, but now is neither the time nor the place where I can do that.”

Kevin Franke also read statements from two of his daughters aged 16 and 11, both of whom support the bill. Franke said that both statements were submitted to a youth court for approval, “and the judge agreed that these statements could and should be read to this committee.”

In her explanation, the 16-year-old said that the law had been when her family had made online content: “My mother would not have been able to withdraw all my savings that I achieved from YouTube. This calculation will prevent other children from recognizing the pain that compensation has suddenly disappeared for years and effort. “

The 16-year-old said that she also supported the part of the law that enables adults to ask the removal of content that they made as children.

“As children, you don’t notice what they are really exposed to.” The 16-year-old’s statement continued. “They sell their lives, their privacy, their bodies and their stories to the whole world. And as a child, they involuntarily give up all of this. You sell your childhood. Although there is no amount of money that can compensate for this loss, this can no longer be done to ensure that the child is paid for their work and has the right to remove and go away if she wants. “

In her explanation, the 11-year-old said that she hoped that the bill would “keep the children of Utah more safer” because “more than any other”, she added, she knows “about the terrible situation that many children are in Moment. “

When the 11-year-old was on YouTube, she said in her explanation: “I thought nothing was wrong. I felt happy, but it really wasn’t. When I got older, I realized that the YouTube channel had ruined my childhood. But at least I have some money, right? Oh, right, I actually didn’t do it because my mother withdrew all of this in 2023. I worked hard for this money. I behaved like someone I was not in front of the camera and I made this money. But I have the feeling that my mother used me for money. “

The 11-year-old emphasized that writing the statement was her idea. “They all say at the moment, my father told me that I should say these things and use myself, but that’s not true,” said the child in their explanation. “When someone uses their children, it is the YouTubers who turn them for money.”

“I know that I stuck to YouTube’s trauma,” continued the 11-year-old’s statement. “Even now I can hardly find friends, because I was the focus of attention all my life. But now, without realizing it, I am looking for the attention of others or I have the feeling that they don’t like me. Then these people think, I am mean. “

The sponsor of Bill, Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, found that the bill also covers children who appear in films, televisions and commercials.

Bill reflects California’s “Coogan Law”, which was enacted in 1939 and was inspired by the children’s star Jackie Coogan, who was discovered by Charlie Chaplin at the age of 7 and was one of the most popular film stars of the 1920s and 1930s. As an adult, Coogan brought his mother and stepfather to court to learn that the California law then checked them and spent everything he deserved. (Coogan achieved late career in the 1960s and played uncle firmly in the TV series “The Addams Family”.)

According to Sag-Aftra, the Union, which represents film and TV actors, coogan laws require a degree of trust for children’s artists in California, New York, Illinois, Louisiana and New Mexico. Last autumn, California expanded its Coogan Act to treat children who appear online.

HB322 now goes into the full house to take this into account.