Utah mom who gave YouTube parenting advice arrested on suspicion of child abuse: Police
Utah (US), Sep 1: A Utah woman who gave online parenting advice via a once popular YouTube channel has been arrested on suspicion of aggravated child abuse after her malnourished son escaped out a window and ran to a nearby house for help, authorities said..
Ruby Franke, whose now defunct channel “8 Passengers” followed her family, was arrested Wednesday night in the southern Utah city of Ivins. She was taken into custody at the home of Jodi Hildebrandt, who owns a counselling business that she says teaches people to improve their lives by being honest, responsible and humble.
Franke has recently appeared in YouTube videos with Hildebrandt that were posted online by Hildebrandt’s counseling business, ConneXions Classroom.
Franke’s 12-year-old son climbed out of a window in Hildebrandt’s residence in Ivins and ran to a neighbour’s house Wednesday morning and asked for food and water, according to an affidavit filed by an officer with the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department.
The neighbour saw duct tape on the boy’s ankles and wrists and called law enforcement, the affidavit said. The boy was taken to a hospital, where he was put on a medical hold “due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with rope and from his malnourishment,” arrest records state.
Franke’s 10-year-old daughter was later found malnourished in Hildebrandt’s house and was also taken to the hospital, officers said. Two other of Franke’s children were in the custody of child protection services, the affidavit said.
Both Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on suspicion of two felony counts of aggravated child abuse, though charges have not been filed, according to authorities.
Franke requested an attorney and did not speak with officers, the affidavit said. That attorney had not publicly been identified Thursday.” (AP)
Judge blocks Arkansas law requiring parental OK for minors to create social media accounts
Arkansas (US), Sep 1: A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Arkansas from enforcing a new law that would have required parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts, preventing the state from becoming the first to impose such a restriction.
US District Judge Timothy L Brooks granted a preliminary injunction that NetChoice – a tech industry trade group whose members include TikTok, Facebook parent Meta, and X, formerly known as Twitter – had requested against the law. The measure, which Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law in April, was set to take effect Friday.
Arkansas’ law is similar to a first-in-the-nation restriction signed into law earlier this year in Utah. That law is not set to take effect until March 2024. NetChoice last year filed a lawsuit challenging a California law requiring tech companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children physically or mentally.
In a 50-page ruling, Brooks said NetChoice was likely to succeed in its challenge to the Arkansas law’s constitutionality and questioned the effectiveness of the restrictions.
“Age-gating social media platforms for adults and minors does not appear to be an effective approach when, in reality, it is the content on particular platforms that is driving the state’s true concerns,” wrote Brooks, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama.
Similar laws placing restrictions on minors’ use of social media have been enacted in Texas and Louisiana, which also aren’t scheduled to take effect until next year. Top Republicans in Georgia have said they’ll push for a parental consent measure in the Legislature next year, and some members of Congress have proposed similar legislation.
NetChoice argued the requirement violated the constitutional rights of users and arbitrarily singled out types of speech that would be restricted. (AP)