Family content creators are known for their engaging challenges, travel, and exciting family news. The videos are aimed towards kids with their colorful thumbnails, and unique kids names. Many families in these categories come to mind, all of which are problematic. The families that come to mind are “The LaBrant Family”, “The Norris Nuts”, and “ 8 Passengers”. Each family has had criminal allegations against them and have been “canceled” one way or another, to each their own.
Starting with “The LaBrant Family”: As a kid I remember watching their videos on “Vine”. A platform is similar to “TikTok” in its short, fast-paced, videos. There seemed to be nothing wrong with these harmless videos and I used to enjoy them. Back in 2015-17, I remember seeing something come up about how the father, Cole Labrant, was accused of child neglect for Everleigh, his eldest daughter. This was never looked into, though it raises concern. In this family, the wife, Savannah, used to be married to Tommy Smith. Smith died due to a drug overdose and Savannah was raising their child all by herself. As far as I once knew, Tommy was a good dad but the two were not a happy couple. Many were under the impression that Cole LaBrant didn’t like that Everleigh was more attached to Smith than him. Then Savannah and Smith got a divorce and Everleigh was banned from seeing her father. In 2021, an article came out about the LaBrant’s life. Comedy.com says “Everything that had happened with Tommy left her with terribly low self-esteem, and she struggled to love herself or believe in herself.” This idea that Smith was soley to blame for everything that went wrong overshadows the tragedy of Tommy Smith.
An Freshman said, “I remember watching the LaBrants with my sister; the family seemed fine and nothing too out of the ordinary. Though once I got older I figured out they really just exploit their children for views, which is just wrong.”
The Norris Nuts: Where do I even begin with the amount of pure disgust I have for this family? The children look miserable. The mom is a pure instigator and uses her kids emotional well being for views. This “family” consists of Sabre, Sockie, Biggy, Naz, Disco, Charm, Mama (Brooke), Papa (Justin). Notice that these children have very uncommon names which adds a bit of oddity to the pot. A short while ago I stumbled upon a video of one of the sons, Biggy, crying and singing. It is completely normal for a young kid to cry, but I wanted to see why he was crying. After some digging, I found out his mom (Brooke) was filming him crying while singing the song “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa. Filming a child while they are crying is completely immoral and inappropriate. Imagine being a child and having an emotional and raw moment and your mom whips out her phone and records you. That would crush your self esteem and make you go quiet fast. That is only the tip of the iceberg with this family. There are many more controversies that have gone on in this family.
A group of middle school girls collectively agreed saying: “ They seemed weird at first and are still weird.” Another added, “I watched them for years and I still sometimes do. But the ‘challenges’ they do are super questionable; like the one where the eight and nine year old pretended to be 21 for the day.”
Lastly, but surely the most sinister, 8 passengers: The mother, Ruby Franke, was recently arrested with her husband, Kevin Franke, for child neglect in the second degree. Franke documented her odd and unconventional punishments, including the time her eldest son played a prank on the younger one saying that the family was going to Disney. The little boy got excited and was very happy. Later, the older brother said that it was a prank and the mom punished the son by taking away his door and bed. He then had to sleep on a bean bag for eight months. This could lead any kid into dark places. Depressed and confused with a huge punishment blown out of proportion. Another example is when the children’s school called and told Franke that her 6-year-old daughter forgot her lunch at home and would need for it to be dropped off. Franke refused and told the school “she can go hungry”. This is a prime example of child neglect and how careless Franke is. Kids are constantly growing and need fuel to get through their day.
Senior Alina Abbott said,” As a kid I watched a lot of family youtube channels and didn’t think anything of it. I always thought, ‘look at this happy family having fun with their kids.’ Rewatching later, I realized how wrong this is. All of these kids being exploited to the entire world just because of their parents. Its so sad, because once your in the spotlight like that, the internet won’t let you move past it.”
