The videos that made Mike Martin a YouTube star have apparently caused him to lose custody of his kids.
Martin, aka DaddyOFive, and his wife Heather Martin, were the targets of a children's welfare investigation after a rash of complaints came from viewers of their YouTube channel regarding the pair's treatment of his kids, 9-year-old Cody and 12-year-old Emma.
According to Mashable, the children are now living with their biological mother Rose Hall. In a video posted Monday, Hall said the kids were "doing good."
The custody change came after complaints poured in online about DaddyOFive's popular videos that showed the Martins pulling pranks, which were deemed vicious by some people, at the expense of the kids. The channel had about 763,000 subscribers as of May 2.
Some of the pranks included making Cody believe he'd been adopted out of their family and destroying the boy's Xbox with a hammer.
While DaddyOFive's "prank" videos have all been deleted, the Martins posted an emotional apology video on April 22.
"We realized we have made some terrible parenting decisions and we just want to make things right," Heather Martin said in the video, which has been watched more than 1.6 million times.
"I do agree that we put things on the internet that should not be there and we did things we should not do," Mike Martin said.
Heather Martin went on to explain the mindset that came with YouTube success.
"Once people started watching us and the kids got excited about it ... we went from something that wasn't so bad and then we just kept going more and more for the shock factor ... to see what could get more views," she said.
Clint Davis covers entertainment and trending news topics for the Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @MrClintDavis.
