Parents Michael and Heather Martin ran the YouTube channel FamilyOFive, and currently, they’re serving probation in Maryland for child abuse.
Yesterday, Inquisitr reported that the FamilyOFive account still actively published videos despite the scandal and 2017 conviction that resulted in the parents losing custody of their two youngest children while three older children continued living with the family. The family moved to West Virginia and continued to publish the same style of family prank videos that led to their conviction under channels called FamilyOFive and FamilyOFive Gaming.
According to a report from WUSA 9 , YouTube took down the channels yesterday right after 5:30 p.m. Google released a statement that said, “Content that endangers children is unacceptable to us. We have worked extensively alongside experts in child safety to make sure we have strict policies and are aggressively enforcing them. Given this channel owner’s previous strikes for violating our Guidelines prohibiting child endangerment, we’re removing all of his channels under our Terms of Service.”
Combined, the Martins YouTube channels had over 400,000 subscribers despite the child abuse conviction they received in Maryland. The original channel, DaddyOFive stopped amidst the scandal, and many users felt outraged that Google allowed the convicted child abusers to continue with new channels on the popular video sharing platform for so long.
YouTube blocks ‘FamilyOFive’ account of parents convicted of child neglect https://t.co/m688xuWEzo pic.twitter.com/v1szshi6K7
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) July 19, 2018
The Martins said in a statement, “Our family has worked very hard to heal and reestablish ourselves over the past 18 months. Through a lot of hard work and introspection, we are all doing well, and are happy. YouTube is something we enjoy as a family, and we will continue to do it, within the strict boundaries we have set for ourselves. For the sake of our privacy and continued healing, I have no further comment or anything past, or present at this time.”
Despite that, trailers for the couple’s YouTube channel showed a child suffering a hit to the groin with a ball and another screaming at them to turn off the camera. Plus, in a video from earlier this year, a child explained an eye injury. At one point, a child featured in the videos also had an emotional meltdown due to the family’s harassment.
Despite what the Martins said in their statement, it does not look as if they changed their ways even after losing their two youngest children after their conviction. While they claimed to be “entertainers” and that some footage may have been “exaggerated” for entertainment purposes, it’s easy to see why Google decided to remove the channels.
