CSPP Professor John Caffaro, PhD; lent expertise to the Washington Post on child and sibling abuse
A psychologist who treats abused children watched three of DaddyOFive鈥檚 videos at our request for this post. He said he 鈥渨as distressed and had trouble sitting through the videos forwarded.鈥
Said John Caffaro, a distinguished professor at the California School of Professional Psychology and an expert in sibling abuse: 鈥淭here is little question in my mind that the three videos depict abusive behavior between parents and children as well as between siblings. The parents鈥 constant and intense ridicule, involving both words and actions that express contempt, and degradation, deprive the child victim of a sense of self worth.鈥
The saga of a YouTube family who pulled disturbing pranks on their own kids
Heather Martin, a.k.a. 鈥淢ommyOFive,鈥 is screaming. 鈥淕et your f鈥斺 a 鈥 up here!鈥 she yells at Cody, her young son. Mike Martin 鈥 DaddyOFive to his family YouTube channel鈥檚 750,000 subscribers 鈥 follows along behind with the camera as Cody runs upstairs. Soon, he is yelling, too: 鈥淲hat the hell is that?鈥 There is ink all over the floor of Cody鈥檚 room. The boy begins to cry. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 do that,鈥 he says, his face turning red. 鈥淚 swear to God I didn鈥檛 do that.鈥
For three minutes, the parents scream and swear at Cody and his brother Alex, accusing them of spilling the ink. Suddenly, MommyOFive reveals a small bottle in her hand. She smiles and laughs. The ink was trick ink, she says, it will disappear from the floor. 鈥淵ou just got owned!鈥 DaddyOFive says, pointing the camera in the faces of his children, who appear to be elementary school-aged. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a prank, bruh!鈥 As the Martin parents laugh, their children remain sitting on the bed, faces still red from crying.
The video is difficult to watch; it feels wrong in your gut. Go deeper into DaddyOFive鈥檚 YouTube channel archives, and that gut feeling gets worse. DaddyOFive shoves Cody, who falls into a bookshelf. DaddyOFive screams at Cody for several minutes while older brother Jake taunts and tackles the much smaller child. DaddyOFive built enough of a fan base to make a living off his monetized YouTube channel, but to most onlookers, the videos he posted looked a lot like abuse. A psychologist who treats abused children watched three of DaddyOFive鈥檚 videos at our request for this post. He said he 鈥渨as distressed and had trouble sitting through the videos forwarded.鈥
Said John Caffaro, a distinguished professor at the California School of Professional Psychology and an expert in sibling abuse: 鈥淭here is little question in my mind that the three videos depict abusive behavior between parents and children as well as between siblings. The parents鈥 constant and intense ridicule, involving both words and actions that express contempt, and degradation, deprive the child victim of a sense of self worth.鈥
YouTube, as a corporate entity, has stayed relatively quiet about the videos on DaddyOFive鈥檚 page. Some that were reported to the site鈥檚 moderators were removed for violating the site鈥檚 rules against 鈥渉arassment and bullying.鈥 Overall, though, the push to define the boundaries of acceptable content has instead come from within the community of individual YouTube creators and their audiences.
鈥淭he more I dove into this channel鈥檚 history, the more concerned I became,鈥 Philip DeFranco, a well-known YouTuber, told his viewers in the first of three videos about DaddyOFive last week. He wasn鈥檛 the first to raise concerns about DaddyOFive, but he was the first major YouTube personality to talk about the story. The online outrage ballooned from there.
Hundreds of thousands of people watched the ink prank on YouTube, and millions more watched videos about it from prominent YouTubers such as DeFranco. The YouTube community soon rallied around a common mission: to help the kids, particularly Cody.
鈥淲hen you see a child in actual pain, dealing with actual anxiety that鈥檚 been inflicted, it鈥檚 very simple to know what鈥檚 been done there,鈥 YouTuber Steven Williams, , said last week. 鈥淭here is no argument to be had whether these children deserve this. And the answer is simply, 鈥楴o.鈥 鈥
鈥淚 look back to my childhood, and I think about how badly I wanted someone to intervene,鈥 Boogie added. He has talked about his own abuse as a child on his channel.
YouTubers have reported the Martins to Child Protective Services and law enforcement officials in Maryland, where the couple lives. A spokeswoman for Baltimore County police said in a statement that the department been 鈥渕ade aware of the videos and are currently checking into the situation to find out if any of the videos were created in Baltimore County.鈥 An investigation there is ongoing, and according to the Baltimore Sun, a similar one is underway in Frederick County, where the family now lives.
A petition asking Child Protective Services in Maryland to 鈥渞einvestigate鈥 the Martins has The story became even more complicated when a North Carolina woman, identifying herself as Martin鈥檚 ex and the biological mother of Cody and his sister Emma, . A few dedicated YouTubers are to pay for her to see a lawyer.
Keemstar, a somewhat notorious YouTube personality who runs a channel called 鈥淒rama Alert,鈥 was initially sympathetic toward the Martins. But after he saw a video in which the father instructs his son to slap his daughter Emma in the face, he changed his mind.
鈥淭he fact that a parent would say to themselves, 鈥業t鈥檚 okay for me to film my son slap my daughter and put it up on the Internet where she鈥檚 crying?鈥 鈥 he . 鈥淎fter I saw that clip today, those parents need to be in jail.鈥
DaddyOFive deleted all of the content from his channel last Wednesday, except for one video: 鈥淔amily Destroyed Over False Aquisations,鈥 in which the parents claimed that the videos were 鈥渇ake,鈥 and the children are willing participants in the channel. The Martins implied that the family was the victim of a witch hunt by an angry YouTube mob.
But the Martins deleted that video Saturday and posted a second response, 鈥淒addyOFive Founders Issue Public Apology.鈥 It has visibly higher production values and a more apologetic tone. According to , the family has now retained a crisis management and PR firm.
鈥淲e realize we have made some terrible parenting decisions, and we just want to make things right,鈥 Heather Martin says in the video. She adds that the family is now in counseling together 鈥渢o understand what we did wrong in all this,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e just wanted our kids to be happy and we went about it in the wrong way.鈥
The Martins did not respond to multiple interview requests from The Washington Post.
鈥淔aked鈥 or not, Caffaro said, behavior like what he saw in the DaddyOFive videos can have a negative effect on children. 鈥淭he family is teaching their children that emotional and physical violence is a way to solve problems,鈥 he said. And besides, children are usually not capable of making the cognitive distinction between 鈥渇ake鈥 and 鈥渞eal鈥 abusive behavior, even if the parents are.
YouTubers are experts at rallying the platform鈥檚 passionate community around a cause or a perceived wrong. Last week, for instance, YouTube to its 鈥渞estricted mode鈥 that appear to be a direct result of outrage among creators who noticed that the family-friendly content filter was . They鈥檝e also that have crossed a line in the past.
But DaddyOFive wasn鈥檛 just another extreme prank channel, of which there are hundreds on YouTube. It was an extreme prank channel involving young kids, who regularly appeared in the videos as victims.
In this case, the weight of YouTube鈥檚 attention has been placed on a single family, largely focused on the well-being of a single child. And Cody鈥檚 welfare is a more complicated problem for the YouTube outrage cycle to solve. Online outrage, even in its most genuine and worthy form, needs attention to thrive, like any information-based cycle. And a topic such as DaddyOFive has a limited shelf life on YouTube. The outrage that drove DaddyOFive off the platform probably won鈥檛 last long enough to sustain its attention on the welfare of the children all the way through until the story has an ending.
鈥淚 think a lot of people will say what鈥檚 done is done,鈥 said Boogie, the popular YouTuber. 鈥淏ut there needs to be people, once the Internet mob moves on, who work for real lasting change for those people.鈥
The solution to the DaddyOFive problem is more complicated than an angry mob that moves on with time. But the way the controversy began, Caffaro indicated, was a result of YouTubers doing the right thing. While a YouTube video isn鈥檛 enough to get a full picture of what鈥檚 going on within a family, 鈥渙ne鈥檚 own emotional reactions (in a healthy and functional individual) to such stimuli can often be useful guideposts for determine an appropriate response,鈥 he said.
In other words, when deciding whether to report a YouTube video such as DaddyOFive鈥檚 to moderators or authorities, it鈥檚 okay to trust your gut.
See the original article posted by the Washington Post here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2017/04/25/the-saga-of-a-youtube-family-who-pulled-disturbing-pranks-on-their-own-kids/?tid=pm_lifestyle_pop
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