A couple over in the US lost custody of two of their children after they posted several videos of them playing pranks on the kids, which some said showed child abuse.

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The YouTube account called ‘DaddyOFive’ gained many viewers over the past several weeks thanks to the videos where the two parents, biological father Mike Martin and stepmother Heather, played pranks on their kids. One of the focuses was the son Cody, who they accused of bad behaviour before punishing him physically and emotionally. In another clip they told their youngest son that he had been adopted by another family.

Mike and Heather have now denied the videos were abusive and have claimed that they were fake. The court obviously disagreed, as custody of the two kids, Cody and his sister Emma, has been handed to their biological mother, Rose Hall. She says:

They’re doing good.

They’re getting back to their playful selves.

As said, DaddyOFive’s creators have claimed that the videos, which gained the channel almost 800,000 subscribers and millions of views, were harmless. But much of the YouTube community did not agree, including YouTuber Philip DeFranco, who released the following video showing some of the most horrifying clips. I’ve got to say, when you see the footage, you understand why these guys lost custody:

Not cool. You can’t just abuse a kid like that and then say, “It’s just a prank, bro.” Dickheads. They’ve now taken down all of the videos and replaced them with an apology, which you can watch below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoYTdYRPPpw

Hindsight’s a bitch right? They should’ve realised what they were doing to those poor kids when they were doing it. At least Cody and Emma are with their mum now – hopefully this couple doesn’t make the same mistakes with their other three kids.

For more bad parenting, here’s a video showing a mum teaching her toddler how to smoke. What’s wrong with people?