After being roundly criticized for posting disturbing videos of “pranks” of their children, a Maryland couple has lost custody of two of their kids.
Rose Hall, the biological mother of nine-year-old Cody and 12-year-old Emma Martin, said in a video that she filed an emergency order to regain custody of the children who were seen hit and brought to tears in several videos posted by their father and stepmother, Mike and Heather Martin.
Since August of 2015, the family has posted videos to a YouTube account called DaddyOFive, which has more than 762,000 subscribers. The page could bring the family an income of $200,000 to $350,000 a year, according to an estimate from New York Magazine.
A video titled “Invisible Ink Prank” garnered the biggest public outcry last month. It featured the Martin parents screaming and cursing at Cody for allegedly covering his room with ink that was actually smeared by his stepmother. The nine-year-old was left in tears.
“Psycho Clown Attacks Family” and “Dad Punches Kid In The Face,” are among the titles of other videos that also feature the couples’ older children.
The family lives in Ijamsville, near Frederick.
As the public began to speak out, there was an online petition created to get Child Protective Services to investigate the couple and another petition to get the account banned from YouTube.
The footage of the ink incident was eventually pulled from YouTube for violating the site’s harassment and bullying policy, according to Fox 5 News. And Mike Martin said in a tweet that he’s removed the rest of the videos for his family’s safety.
The Martin parents originally defended their actions, then later said that some videos were exaggerated, fake, and scripted.
But after the ink prank, they released an apology video in which Mike acknowledged that they made “some terrible parenting decisions and we just want to make things right.”
The couple went on to say that they began posting the more disturbing footage for the “shock value” and to see how many views they could get. They said that they thought the money was helping their family, and now they’re all seeing a counselor.
Hall, the kids’ biological mother, told New York Magazine that she had custody of Emma and Cody until 2014 when the Martins forged her signature on paperwork that granted them permanent custody, and they “used intimidation tactics in the ensuing custody battle.”
She said in the video that the Frederick County Sheriff’s Department recently helped her get them back. Her lawyer, Tim Conlon, said that the kids are “sort of in a deprogramming mode at the moment.” Still, Hall says they are “doing good, and they’re getting back to their playful selves.”