Your jaw will hit the floor again and again throughout Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke (BBC Two, 9pm), a horribly riveting three-part documentary about the rise and implosion of an online influencer who, at her peak, had millions of subscribers to her YouTube channel.At the zenith of her popularity, Franke’s channel was bringing in $100,000 a month. But while she amassed her fortune, her six children were paying the terrible price of having their childhoods turned into content for the masses to consume.This in itself is no surprise: we all know that the fantasy lifestyle sold by influencers is, more often than not, a digital mirage. But what is shocking is the degree to which Franke was prepared to prioritise clicks over the wellbeing of her family – and how the poor treatment then metastasised into full-fledged abuse, as was made horrifically clear when one of her emaciated kids knocked on a neighbour’s door asking to be taken to the local police station.The child was severely malnourished and injured. When the authorities investigated, it emerged that Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt, her mentor and business partner, had been mistreating the children and they were later convicted of aggravated child abuse – sentences they serve to this day.It had all started so innocently, with Franke sharing snippets and episodes from her family’s life in picturesque Springville, Utah, with viewers on YouTube. But behind the scenes, the documentary argues, she was a masterful user and saw her children and her husband, Kevin, as nothing but objects to be manipulated.True crime stories are a staple of streaming services, and Devil in the Family has been on Disney+ since last year. But even by those sensationalist standards, it is a breathtakingly disquieting portrayal of manipulation behind the picket fences of an idyllic small town.Long before Franke joined the momfluencer world, there had been warning signs. Kevin recalls stumbling upon a list his future spouse had made of potential suitors and what they would have to do to win her hand. He resolved then and there to tick whatever boxes she required. She reeled him in, and to this day he insists that he loves his wife.[ Ruby Franke, parenting advice YouTuber, jailed for child abuseOpens in new window ]In the end, though, he too was expendable. He was expelled from the business by Hildebrandt, whom Ruby had initially sought out as a counsellor – and who quickly enmeshed herself into her client’s life (Kevin filed for divorce in 2023). However, the family’s older children were more resistant. Teenager Chad was admonished by his mother for refusing to play happy for the camera and was forced to sleep on a bean bag for months on end. Meanwhile, daughter Shari, who refers to her mother by her first name, recalls how she and her siblings became employees of their parents. “Our entire schedule revolved around YouTube,” she recalls. “That’s where I started to have issues ... It felt more like a set than a house.”It was also a gateway to hell – or so feels Kevin Franke. “In many ways we were the perfect family,” he says. “But the devil knocked and we opened the door.”