YouTubers Daddyofive, also known as Heather and Mike Martin, have just lost custody of two of their five kids. Rose Hall, biological mother of nine-year-old Cody and his sister Emma, received emergency custody of the children. The father of the remaining three children, Rickie Zopp, filed for custody on Monday.

The channel, which showed the five children being “pranked” by their parents, has raised some suspicion this month after prominent YouTubers, including h3h3 productions and Philip Defranco, made videos claiming the parents were abusive. Videos started to pop up after the initial allegations, with the internet rage machine campaigning to get these kids out of a “toxic” home.

Daddyofive has taken down all of the videos on its channel, leaving up one sad apology posted last week. The vlog channel forced the couple to create content nearly every day, straining the definition of “prank” at times. The most incriminating videos showed the couple screaming at one child in particular, Cody, until he cried. In one video, invisible ink was sprinkled on Cody’s carpet and then the couple berated the nine-year-old, yelling at him at the top of their lungs.

The couple who creates videos on the Daddyofive channel, including Cody’s biological father, claim what they do isn’t abuse. After their channel started to blow up, they released a video defending their actions and insisting their children actually enjoy making these videos. Everyone who didn’t enjoy their content was just a “hater” and not someone they wanted viewing their channel. They seemed almost unaware what they were doing could be wrong, that pushing kids into bookshelves, bloodying their lips or screaming at them until they break down crying could be a bad thing. “It’s just a prank bro” is not a valid defense when small children are involved.

In an interview with Good Morning America on Friday, they issued an apology, saying that they are “bad parents” and are going to family counseling to improve their family’s lives. "[What] you see on our YouTube channel is not a reflection of who we are. It's not," Heather said. "It's a character. It was a show, a bad show, but it was a show."

"I am ashamed," Mike said. "It started out as family fun. It started with me and my kids, but then it was just about making a video and then making the next video more crazier than the next."

I’ve been watching the drama from the beginning and think it’s gross that this is the way things are turning out. Granted, the Martins should have known not to throw their son in a bookshelf, call it prank and put it online. But still, they are people. Watching this family disintegrate in front of our computer and iPhone screens is giving everyone a Schadenfreude boner, but it’s important to remember that these kids are going to have a rough time living this channel down and putting it behind them.

YouTube is a wasteland where anyone can post whatever they want. That doesn’t always mean that they should. Let’s hope these people get the help they need instead of reveling in their downfall.

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