Month: February 2024

Categories
Opinion/Commentary

Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt sentenced for child abuse

Trigger warning: this post mentions child abuse and may be triggering for some readers. If this is true for you, please proceed with care.

On Wednesday, (Australian Eastern Daylight Time), a Utah judge sentenced Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt

The 8 Passengers’ matriarch was sentenced between four to sixty years imprisonment for aggravated child abuse. Hildebrandt was given the same sentence.

Late last year, Franke confessed to abusing her – then twelve -year – old son. She admitted to forcing him to work outside in late Spring to late Summer (May to August). Despite the heat, Franke’s son wasn’t given adequate water. He also suffered severe sunburns.

Franke also physically abused her son and bound his ankles and wrists with handcuffs and rope.

Franke then ‘treated’ the boy’s injuries with duct tape.

When the judge asked her plea, Franke said:

With my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children, guilty.

Franke treated her then – then nine – year. – old – daughter in similar ways.

Yet, Franke has had the gall to accuse one of her children of sexual abuse and calling her children ‘evil and posessed’. If the second statement isn’t an example of projection, I don’t know what is!

Franke’s sadistic nature was evident on ‘8 Passengers’

Image: contrastaddict, iStock

No one should be surprised with these charges. Ruby is sadistic and she hasn’t hid it.

As far back as 2020, viewers were disturbed over Franke’s overly – strictt parenting.

She treated her children horribly, all in the public eye.

Last year, reporters and commentators revealed that Franke forced her eldest son to sleep on a beanbag for seven months. In a video, the teenager revealed that he’d got in trouble for pranking his brother.

She refused to give her young daughter —who was six at the time — lunch at school. Why? Because the six – year – old daughter forgot to pack it.

In 2021, Franke announced that she and Kevin were giving two of their youngest children “the gift of truth” for Christmas. That’s code for nothing. These children weren’t even teenagers at this stage.

But wait, there’s more. Both children were used by toy companies to promote… toys for Christmas. You can’t make this stuff up!

Snail Galaxy started a petition calling for Child Protection Services (CPS) to investigate Franke’s treatment of the children. Unfortunately, it amassed less than three hundred signatures. But Franke was starting to get attention for all the wrong reasons.

YouTuber Josh Barbour has covered Franke’s cruelty on Dad Challenge Podcast for about three years.

Ex – LDS couple, Jordan and McKay has also spoken about Franke and Hildebrandt, especially Hildebrandt’s therapy practices.

Where to from here?

The imprisonment of Franke and Hildebrandt brings up many issues. One is exploitation of children online. The other is the danger of the ‘picture perfect’ image that family vloggers put across. It seems limke that the more ‘perfect’ a vlogger family seems, the more that they have to hide.

As social media users, the best we can do is stop falling for it. Stop watching family vlogs and other problematic creators. Fortunately, that’s starting to happen.

If this post brings up any issues for you and you’re in Australia, you can contact:

Lifeline: 13 11 14

Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636 or go on their webchat

Kids Helpline (for those between five and 25): 1800 55 1800 or their webchat

If you or anyone you know is in immediate danger, call 000 or your national emergency number.

Former 7News reporter swears to not sharing her children on social media

Image: 5./15 West

Earlier this year, cricketer David Warner and his wife Candice admitted to posting their three daughters online. The daughers — all under the age of ten at the time— had their own public Instagram account. The Warners bragged that they amassed over 162,000 followers.

At the time, I wrote a post criticising their announcement. The harms of public social media for children isn’t a secret.

Fortunately, some public figures are determined to protect their children. They want their children remain out of the public eye.

Kendall Gilding vows to keep young children out of public eye

Last month, former 7News reporter wrote on QWeekend about children and social media. She opened with a chilling introduction:

I walked into a cafe recently, saw a toddler and immediately thought, “Hey I know you!” Except I didn’t. “No, it must be your mum I know.”. Except I didn’t.

In some cases, this could be the start of a parasocial relationship. Parasocial relationships are relationships that are one – sided. Parasocial relationships are often sparked by the adoration a fan has for a celebrity.

More and more, this is extending to social media influencers and vloggers.

Luckily, Gilding knew the boundaries. She knew she didn’t know the baby or the mother who she’d seen on social media. She didn’t fantasise about the child being hers, or being close to her in some way.

This awareness spurred on Gilding to make an important decision.

Gilding claims she won’t share images of her children on social media

Gilding admitted that her son and daughter had been featured in magazines, newspapers and Instagram. However, she’s never been comfortable posting her children on Instagram.

She claims she’s very protective of her daughter, who was born through IVF after years of infertility. Instead of sharing her daughter’s face on Instagram, she opted to sharing her baby’s hand.

Who is following the children?

YouTuber, Josh Barbour has campaigned against family vloggers and kid influencers since 2020.

His main argument has always been that children can’t give informed consent having their lives publicly displayed on social media.

He’s also exposed who most often interacts with child influencers online — especially girls. And he’s found that a large percentage of millions of interactions are made by adult men. Everleigh Labrant/ Smith is a troubling example.

Not only are adult men seeking young girls’ conternt, they often make inappropriate comments.

Arttificial Intelligence (AI) and the Dark Web are other dangers that child influencers are exposed to. Children’s voices and images can be used in child abuse material.

Yes, ot’s dark and sick, But this is what parents need to grapple with in 2024.

It boils down to this: do you want to protect your children or not?

This is the heart of the issue, isn’t it? Do you want to protect your (or anyone’s) children or don’t you? Do you care about the safety of your children?

Naturally, most parents — most adults — want to protect children. But the rise of family vloggers and kid influencers proves that not all adults do. Especially when money i# involved.

Posting children’s images and identities on public social media isn’t safe. Remember I mentioned parasocial relationships earlier? They can be toxic. ‘Fans’ can suddenly turn on their former idols.

Parasocial relationships can become obsessive. This can make an influencer uneasy. And, at it’s worst, if a fan becomes obsessed and realises where an influencer lives, it can become dangerous. Children shouldn’t be exposed to that.

What do you think? Should parents stop posting their children on public social media? Should it be outlawed? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Categories
various social issues

Cashless society hurting the homeless

Homeless person on street, holding handwritten sign saying ‘Help’ that’s underlined
Image: Ekkasit Jokthong, iStock

The ‘cashless society’ has had unintended consequences. According to the ABC, homeless people are finding harder to bet tge money they need to survive.

Morgan, a homeless man from Melbourne told the ABC that some passer – bys ask him his PayID when he asks for money. Some people buy him grocery gift cards, rather than him cash.

They usually go to a supermarket like Woolworths or Coles and buy me a gift card so that we can walk in and buy what we need.

Morgan prefers people giving cash. It helps people like him get what they need without restriction:

A lot of us like me [sic] haven’t got bank cards or EFTPOS cards to use [making us] really restricted from buying what we want and need.

Experts on homelesness agree. Monetary donations can be essential for a homeless person.

Impact of COVID-19

During the pandemic, the government offered homeless people temporary accommodation. Unfortunately, this ended when restrictions started being lifted.

To Morgan, it proved that the government can offer rough sleepers adequate accommodation if they want to.

A snapshot on homelessness in Australia

Adult and child’s hands holding blue paper house
Image: Sew reamStudio, iStock

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) offers a snapshot of homelessness.

However, there is little (if any) hard figures on how many people are currently homeless.

The Salvation Army provided these figures based on the 2021 Census:

  • Victoria has the highest rate of people seeking assistance due to homelessness (37%)
  • 1 in 64 people in Victoria are seeking assistance
  • In New South Wales, 1 in 118 are seeking assistance.

This is only a small snapshot and is lacking context. It obviously doesn’t count people who don’t access assistance.

What is classed as ‘homeless’?

Homelessness is more than sleeping on the street. According to the Salvation Army, homelessness includes:

  • Inadequate housing
  • Have no property, either own or rented
  • Doesn’t have a place where inhabitants have freedom to interact with friends and family.

Causes

The causes of homelessness include:

  • Poverty and having a low income: this probably includes some of tge ‘middle – class too.
  • Mental illness: According to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), the Journeys Home Survey revealed that 78% of people who were in “chronic instability” homelessness were diagnosed with mental illnesses. 61% were staying with friends or family.

Additionally, last year, the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that people increasingly had to choose between paying rent and therapy.

  • Being subjected to justice system: serving prison time and homelessness is linked. According to CEO of Jesuit Social Services, Julie Edwards, a third of prisoners in Victoria are homeless, almost immediately
  • Discrimination and being in a marginalised group: The Salvation Army claims that a high proportion of homeless people are: people from a non – English speaking background, women over fifty – five, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities

What is the solution?

It’s clear that homelessness is a serious problem. What is the solution?

According to the ABC, stigma towards the homeless is a problem. Stugma causes worse mental and physical health. Poor mental health and homelessness can be a vicious cycle.

An obvious solution pointed out by ABC is increased affordable and social housing.

People who face homelessness also need empathy and compassion. Lizzy, a woman who experienced homelessness, told the ABC:

[Compassion is] one of the most important things. To listen to someone, to not judge them, and just show them respect – that’s often all someone’s looking for

Homelessness is a big issue. It takes governments and individuals having the will to help people out. And it all starts with destigmatising the marginalised. Mental illness services need to be fixed. And, of course, there needs to be more affordable housing.