YouTube channel DaddyOFive has deleted all its videos after accusations of child abuse.
The channel, headed by dad Mike Martin, consisted of videos in which the parents “pranked” their five children — often pushing them to the point of mental breakdown. It accrued 765 800 subscribers.
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In the most talked-about video, Martin and his wife spilled invisible ink and accused Cody, their son, of doing it. Cody grew visibly upset as his parents screamed and cursed at him, until his face was bright red and he screamed at them to stop. Only once he’d calmed down did Martin let him know it was a prank — to which Cody did not respond.
In another video, Cody sobs, asking if he had to go through all of that for a “stupid prank.”
DaddyOFive has deleted all its videos following accusations of child abuse
Accusations of emotional and physical abuse kept being thrown at the family, and eventually Martin responded with a video called “BLOCKING ALL THE HATERS!”
In it, Martin addressed the accusations in front of the kids, calling those who criticise their channel “haters.” One of his sons quipped, “at least you’re not beating us like most parents.”
But things hit a boiling point when YouTuber Philip DeFranco made a video presenting evidence of the alleged abuse.
“Ultimately, I’m disgusted by this. I don’t know what the next step is,” DeFranco says. “Now is this child abuse? I would leave that up to Child Protective Services.”
Martin then defended himself on Twitter, claiming that the criticism had put his family in danger.
My kids have been upset all day due to Constant death threats fearing their mom and dad are going to be killed
— Daddyofive (@MikeMartin1982) April 18, 2017
I could careless about money and fam I made this YouTube for my kids this was our family thing we all did together
— Daddyofive (@MikeMartin1982) April 18, 2017
All of DaddyoFive’s videos were subsequently removed, leaving up one final video “Family Destroyed Over False Aquisations.”
“The videos are fake,” Martin says. “They’re fake.”
He reiterates that his family is in “real danger.”
‘My kids have been upset all day due to Constant death threats fearing their mom and dad are going to be killed’
“Right now we are under severe attack by all kinds of media, by this DeFranco guy and all that,” he says. “Somebody tried to run my wife off the road with my kids in the car. We’ve got death threats coming to us.”
But after a leaked video that YouTube had removed revealed Martin encouraging one of his sons to slap his sister, even supporters thought it had been taken too far.
Seen @PhillyD new video where DaddyOFive was having the boys Slap the girl in the face! pic.twitter.com/iKURi1aRkM
— KEEM
(@KEEMSTAR) April 19, 2017
“I believe that a lot of their videos are fake,” DramaAlert’s Keem says, “but that slap was not fake.”
“I don’t believe any of these videos should be on YouTube.”
Others on Twitter agreed.
The number of people defending #DaddyOFive truly upsets me. Whether their content is fake or not, they’re trivializing child abuse.
— Tipster Gaming (@RobertSantellan) April 20, 2017
Fake or otherwise, I found those DaddyOFive videos pretty distressing to watch.
But, y’know, anything for those sweet likes, right?
— Darren McCarthy (@TheDazeel) April 20, 2017
@MikeMartin1982 DaddyOFive:
Mom is crying being ACCUSED of abuse, everyone sympathize.
Kids are crying after ABUSE, “IT’S A PRANK BRO CALM THE F*** DOWN”.
— HESH (@HeshdeSilva) April 20, 2017
Martin has said they will consider changing their content going forward.
— Daddyofive (@MikeMartin1982) April 18, 2017
