A US family accused of documenting child abuse on YouTube have had their children placed into care.

 

In a series of videos which have since been deleted, father Mike Martin and wife Heather would film 'pranks' involving Mike's five children, although one son was often singled out.

 

The videos had its supporters and detractors. With over 750,000 subscribers and millions of views on the now-deleted videos, the YouTube community was divided. Fans defended the 'comedic' value of the videos, while others called for child protection services to intervene, which they did. Nine-year-old Cody and 11-year-old Emma were removed from the home.

 

On Tuesday, the couple posted an apology video on the channel, DaddyOFive. Heather said, "We realise we have made some terrible, terrible decisions." Father Mike said, "We've had some time to step back and see what we've done."

 

So why were the videos so controversial?

 

 

 

Invisible Ink

Many videos, posted under the account DaddyOFive, would see nine-year-old Cody bearing the brunt of the couple's pranks. 'Gags' included Mike and Heather's parents telling Cody that he was being adopted out of the family, had his belongings destroyed and was being blamed for destroying the house.

 

In another video, 'Invisible Ink Prank', ink is spilt on the carpet by a conspiratorial Heather; a terrified Cody is cursed at, interrogated and berated by Martin. Sometimes Cody’s siblings would be filmed hitting and wrestling him.

 

One video shows Cody weeping as his brother smashes his tablet. At the end of the clip, his father reveals he's bought another tablet to replace the broken one, and that the first one was smashed just to see his reaction. In this video, Mike Martin pushes Cody is seen with a bloody nose after being pushed into a bookcase. 

 

Then there's the video where Cody is egged on to hit his 11-year-old sister Emma.

 

The videos are difficult viewing. They would usually end with Cody crying, or sometimes silent. His father would then utter the catchphrase “it’s just a prank, bro” – which appeared intended to make Cody happy but didn’t usually have that effect.

 

 

Blocking the haters

 

In a video posted on April 17 entitled 'Blocking the Haters' Mike defended himself against accusations of abuse and claimed that criticisms of his videos were distressing his children. Heather is seen asking the children, "Was anybody traumatised?" to which the children respond, "No!".

 

Heather also chimes in about CPS being called saying, "We've already been investigated. There's nothing."

 

However, criticism continued with another prominent YouTuber, Philip DeFranco collating clips of Cody's torment and calling out the videos for being abusive. This attracted mainstream media attention and outrage at the DaddyOFive channel.

 

Yesterday, it was reported that Cody and Emma had been removed and placed into the temporary custody of their biological mother, Rose Hall. In her own video posted on YouTube, she sat with her lawyer thanked the online community for highlighting the Martins' mistreatment of their children and said, "They're doing good and getting back to their playful selves." 

 

 

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