Invisible Ink Prank Controversy
Heather and Mike Martin's family was a blended family; Alex, Ryan, and Jake are Heather's children from a previous relationship, while Cody and Emma are Mike's children from a previous relationship. The majority of the channel's videos were composed of Heather and Mike performing pranks on their children, which received prominent backlash as many noticed their abusive nature which included Heather and Mike fighting, screaming, and cursing at the kids in their prank videos. People had also noticed they specifically targeted Cody simply for the money and views, such as in their most infamous video, the Invisible Ink Prank - a prank where Cody was blamed for wrecking a room (Which included invisible ink) and Alex attempted to stand up for him only for him to get blamed as well. This got the attention of Philip DeFranco, who exposed the family and led to them getting hated by many people.
In a later instance, Mike said he was taking the kids to Disneyland but that Cody wasn't going since he claimed that Cody smeared the bathroom wall with feces after the Invisible Ink Prank. Heather even admitted that they wouldn't have taken him anyway since he would probably ruin it. Philip DeFranco and others called them out for this and Mike and Heather later did an interview by Keemstar where they now claimed that the toilet overflowed and that they lied about the smearing poop part to get more attention. They did apologize and said that Cody would go with them to Disneyland, but the interview resulted in more responses from DeFranco and others,
In a response video, Mike denied that the pranks were abuse and said they were simply for entertainment purposes. He maintained the toilet overflowed and claimed that the pranks were fake and that the kids' responses were exaggerated.[citation needed] Mike also attempted to suppress the controversy by having followers of the channel attack users (mainly DeFranco) who were speaking out against them, although it only made the controversy bigger.
Multiple people started to talk about this issue, to the point where it received international attention in lots of the media for a considerable amount of time.[citation needed] Mike and Heather later did another interview by Keemstar and later did one with Good Morning America where they did admit the pranks were real, but claimed that the pranks weren't abusive and that the kids' responses were "exaggerated". However, this did nothing to repair their reputation and resulted in more controversy over their lies and videos. Following this, all the videos on the DaddyOFive account were privatized, except for an apology video they made following the interviews.
Termination
On July 18, 2018, DaddyOFive, along with FamilyOFive, were terminated, apparently due to the repeated display of child abuse, and violating YouTube's Community Guidelines, which they had been known for violating a year before the channels were terminated. When Mike tried to use the FamilyOFive Gaming channel, it got terminated for ban evasion.
See also
TBA