Mean stream: how YouTube prank channel DaddyOFive enraged the internet

A US couple have lost custody of their children after featuring them in allegedly abusive prank videos. They're not the first to go too far in search of hits

Pranks have been a booming part of YouTube's scene for years - but it's a subculture prone to attracting controversy. The latest incident has led to a US father and a stepmother losing custody of two of their children as a result of some of their prank videos.

Mike Martin of Baltimore ran a channel named DaddyOFive, featuring his wife, Heather, and their five children. At the height of the controversy, but before his videos were made private, DaddyOFive had more than 750,000 subscribers and the clips were viewed more than 176m times.