Mike Martin | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Personal information | |||||||
Born | Michael Christopher Martin December 17, 1982 | ||||||
Occupation(s) | YouTube personality, vlogger | ||||||
Children | 6 | ||||||
YouTube information | |||||||
Years active | 2015–2018, 2021–present | ||||||
Genre(s) | Vlog, prank | ||||||
Subscribers | Channel terminated (713,000 at peak) | ||||||
Total views | 176 million+ | ||||||
| |||||||
Criminal information | |||||||
Criminal status | Released | ||||||
Conviction(s) | Child neglect (2 counts) | ||||||
Criminal penalty | 5 years probation | ||||||
Details | |||||||
Victims | 2 | ||||||
Date apprehended | August 11, 2017 |
DaddyOFive, briefly known as FamilyOFive, was a short-lived, controversial YouTube channel and online alias of Michael Christopher "Mike" Martin (born December 17, 1982), which focused on daily vlogging and "prank" videos. At its peak, the channel's videos featured Martin, his wife Heather Martin—also known by her online alias MommyOFive—and their children. In 2017, following a series of "prank" videos showing the parents physically and emotionally abusing their children, the channel became the center of a public controversy, as outrage grew over their abuse of their children. They later were found guilty of child abuse and have ceased creating videos on that channel but have resurfaced on others, following the termination of their original channel.
The channel was created on August 13, 2015; [1] the channel's about page stated, "we as a FAMILY DECIDED to make this YouTube channel just for fun." [1] The channel focused on Mike, Heather and their five children, whose names are Jake, Ryan, Emma, Cody, and Alex. [2] Mike and Heather Martin have since had a child together since the channel's termination. Jake, Ryan and Alex are Heather's children from a previous marriage. Cody and Emma are Mike and his ex-girlfriend Rose Hall's children.
The channel accumulated around 750,000 subscribers and 176 million views, prior to Mike removing the videos from public viewing. [2] The Guardian and New York magazine reported the videos had been made private, [2] [3] while Time and The Washington Post reported that the videos had been deleted. [4] [5]
The family became the center of abuse claims following these prank videos which became gradually more extreme, [2] with many videos involving Mike encouraging his eldest child, Jake, to physically and psychologically abuse his younger siblings, often to the point of severe injury and intense emotional distress.
One such video involved Cody, the second youngest child, being thrown through a doorway by Jake and against a bookcase by Mike; he was left with what appeared to be injuries to his face. [5] Another video involved Alex, the youngest, being instructed by Mike to slap Emma, the middle child (who is Cody's biological sister), across the face for failing to perform a water bottle flip correctly; he was never reprimanded, despite leaving Emma visibly hurt and crying. [6]
American YouTube personality and news commentator Philip DeFranco released a series of videos covering the channel and sharing his distaste for the content they created, starting with "WOW... We Need To Talk About This..." on April 17, 2017. [7] [2] He primarily focused on a video involving invisible ink being spilled, with Cody and Alex being falsely accused of making the mess. In the video, Cody cries and pleads hysterically after being screamed and sworn at and accused of lying, with Alex also facing a similar treatment from Mike and Heather. [8]
DeFranco's first video covering the channel was credited by many news outlets for shining a light on the channel's extreme content. [4] [9] [5] Andrew Griffin of The Independent wrote, "[DeFranco's] video was viewed more than three million times and brought widespread condemnation of the DaddyOFive channel." [9] The video has led to debates about sharenting and children being minor celebrities on social media. [10]
Emma and Cody were removed from their custody and returned to their biological mother. [9] The creators also issued a public apology for the videos and said they were "a loving, close-knit family." [8] [2]
Mike's channel DaddyOFive released a video on July 7, 2017, showing text expressing that it is not a dead channel and asking viewers to subscribe to Heather's MommyOFive channel for new videos and updates. [11] In July 2017, Mike's channel and Heather's channel had both around 730,000 subscribers and 4.7 million video views, and around 110,000 subscribers and 2.1 million video views, respectively. Later, they changed their channel name to FamilyOFive after receiving the YouTube Creator Award's Silver Play Button for Heather. [1] [12]
Prosecutors from the Frederick County Circuit Court filed criminal charges against Mike and Heather in August 2017, with them facing two counts of "neglect of a minor" apart. [13] On September 11, 2017, Mike and Heather pleaded guilty by way of an Alford plea and were sentenced to five years of supervised probation. [14]
Rose Hall, the biological mother to Mike's two children Emma and Cody, said that she had not seen Cody since July 2014, when she was duped into signing court papers. [15] [16]
The FamilyOFive channel, a new outlet for Mike and Heather's videos created while they were on probation, re-instituted the questionable pattern of behavior regarding abuse of Jake, Ryan, Emma, Cody and Alex featured in the videos. The channel was subsequently terminated on July 18, 2018, for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines, according to several news sources, and YouTube now requires videos featuring children to comply with local child labor laws. [17]
Despite their second attempt at publishing content on YouTube being met with termination, Mike and Heather continued to post videos on their official website behind a monthly $5 subscription fee, [18] and continued streaming gaming videos on their Twitch channel. [19] As of January 2019, Mike and Heather have deleted all of the videos on their website, stating "In order to move on with the healing process from the 2017 events, we have AGREED WILLINGLY to remove our videos, from even this site. For the sake and well-being of our family Mike and I feel it is best that we take a long break from the public spotlight." [20]
On November 11, 2018, Jake, Ryan and Alex created a new YouTube channel called "The Martin Boys" later changed to "The Martin Family". [21] On January 8, 2019, Mike was accused of uploading a video in August 2018, which featured Cody. Despite breaking a major probation rule, Mike and Heather's supervised probation was reduced to probation before judgment. [22] As of 2024, Mike is active on YouTube as The Martin Family. [23]
In June 2019, it was reported that Mike had started a SoundCloud channel, uploading his music as "Mikey M". [24]
Alyson Rae Stoner is an American actor, singer, and dancer. Their film roles include Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), and the Step Up franchise (2006–2014). Their television roles include serving as the host of Disney Channel's Mike's Super Short Show (2001–2007), playing Max in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005–2007), voicing Isabella Garcia-Shapiro in Phineas and Ferb, and portraying Caitlyn in Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010).
Heather Has Two Mommies is a children's book written by Lesléa Newman with illustrations by Diana Souza. First published in 1989, it was one of the first pieces of LGBTQ+ children's literature to garner broad attention.
Dylan Thomas Sprouse and Cole Mitchell Sprouse are American actors. They are twins and are sometimes referred to as the Sprouse brothers or Sprouse Bros. Their first major theatrical film role was in the 1999 comedy Big Daddy, in which they co-starred with Adam Sandler. They later appeared in several television sitcoms and starred in the television film I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and straight-to-DVD Just for Kicks.
Philip James DeFranco, commonly known by his online nickname PhillyD, and formerly known as sxephil, is an American media host and YouTube personality. He is best known for The Philip DeFranco Show, a news commentary show centered on current events in politics and pop culture.
Thomas George Cassell, known online as Syndicate, is an English YouTuber and Twitch streamer. Regarded as one of the earlier known gaming personalities, his videography consists of Let's Play videos on Call of Duty and Minecraft. Born in Manchester, Cassell had passion for a career in the gaming industry, which he started by purchasing gaming equipment using his money from McDonald's. On 3 September 2010, Cassell registered his gaming channel "TheSyndicateProject", where he found success and an online community. His prominence online was recognized by Call of Duty publisher Activision and multi-channel network (MCN) Machinima, where he signed to the network to monetize his content. Cassell's channel achieved substantial growth, passing one million subscribers in June 2012 and one billion views in late 2013. He further expanded his career into livestreaming on Twitch, hosting the same commentary over his gameplays. His Twitch channel became the first to reach one million followers in August 2014.
Sharenting is a portmanteau of "sharing" and "parenting" describing the practice of parents publicizing a large amount of potentially sensitive content about their children on internet platforms. While the term was coined as recently as 2010, sharenting has become an international phenomenon with widespread presence in the United States, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom. As such, sharenting has also ignited disagreement as a controversial application of social media. Detractors find that it violates child privacy and hurts a parent-child relationship. Proponents frame the practice as a natural expression of parental pride in their children and argue that critics take sharenting-related posts out of context.
Roman Bernard Atwood is an American YouTube personality and prankster. He is best known for his vlogs, where he posts updates about his life. His vlogging channel, "RomanAtwoodVlogs", has a total of 5 billion views and 15 million subscribers. He also has another YouTube channel called "RomanAtwood", where he used to post prank videos. The channel has been inactive since 2016. His pranks have gained over 1.4 billion views and 10.4 million subscribers. He became the second YouTuber after Germán Garmendia to receive two Diamond Play Buttons for his first two channels.
Yousef Saleh Erakat, also known as FouseyTube or Fousey, is an American YouTuber, online streamer, actor, and musician. His YouTube channels include FouseyTUBE, and the reality vlog-channel DOSEofFOUSEY. As a YouTuber, he produces prank videos, parodies, vlogs, comedy sketches and interviews. He is the recipient of two Streamy Awards. As an actor, he starred in Tyler Perry's comedy horror film Boo! A Madea Halloween (2016) and its 2017 sequel. In January 2025, he released his debut album, G7: The Death of Fousey, which earned mixed reviews.
Seán William McLoughlin, better known publicly as jacksepticeye, is an Irish YouTuber whose videos focus on gaming, comedy and vlogging.
Jake Joseph Paul is an American professional boxer, influencer and actor. He began his career posting videos on Vine in September 2013 and had amassed 5.3 million followers and 2 billion views before the app was discontinued. He launched his YouTube channel Jake Paul in May 2014, and has ranked on the Forbes list as one of the highest paid YouTube creators in 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2023.
Elsagate is a controversy surrounding videos on YouTube and YouTube Kids that were categorized as "child-friendly", but contained themes inappropriate for children. These videos often featured fictional characters from family-oriented media, sometimes via crossovers, used without legal permission. The controversy also included channels that focused on real-life children, such as Toy Freaks, that raised concern about possible child abuse.
Herschel "Guy" Beahm IV, better known as Dr Disrespect or The Doc, is an American live streamer. He became known for playing battle royale games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, H1Z1, and PUBG: Battlegrounds on Twitch and YouTube. While streaming, he takes a bombastic persona. He has invested in game studios, including founding the Midnight Society.
Cody Michael Kolodziejzyk, better known as Cody Ko, is a Canadian YouTuber, podcaster, comedian, and rapper. His style of content is often crudely comedic and profane. As of April 2023, his five YouTube channels have collectively earned over 9.37 million subscribers and 1.86 billion views.
The Fantastic Adventures scandal was a 2019 scandal involving the YouTube channel Fantastic Adventures, run by Machelle Hackney Hobson of Maricopa, Arizona, in the United States. The scandal began when one of Hobson's biological children contacted the police after witnessing her adopted siblings being systematically abused by her mother. Hobson and the channel garnered worldwide media attention, given the degree of Hobson's child abuse.
YouTube may suspend accounts, temporarily or permanently, from their social networking service. Suspensions of high-profile individuals from YouTube are unusual and when they occur, often attract attention in the media.
Daniel M. Keem, known online as Keemstar, is an American YouTuber, podcaster, and streamer who is mainly known for being the host of the Internet popular culture news show DramaAlert.
Calvin Lee Vail, known online as LeafyIsHere or simply Leafy, is an American former Internet celebrity, best known for his YouTube channel which focused on reaction content. Vail first gained popularity on the site for his commentary on Internet videos and culture. Prior, he posted Let's Play content.
Ruby Franke is an American convicted child abuser and former family vlogger who ran the now defunct YouTube channel 8 Passengers. On August 30, 2023, Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested in Washington County, Utah, and charged with six counts of felony aggravated child abuse of two of Franke's children. Franke ultimately pleaded guilty to four counts and was sentenced to serve between four and sixty years in prison on February 20, 2024.
Jodi Nan Hildebrandt is an American convicted child abuser, former counselor, retired businesswoman, and YouTuber. On August 30, 2023, Hildebrandt and Ruby Franke were arrested in Washington County, Utah, and charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse of two of Franke's children under Utah law, four counts to which she pled guilty. She was sentenced to serve between four and thirty years in prison on February 20, 2024.
YouTube, a video sharing platform, has faced various criticisms over the years, particularly regarding content moderation, offensive content, and monetization. YouTube has faced criticism over aspects of its operations, its recommendation algorithms perpetuating videos that promote conspiracy theories and falsehoods, hosting videos ostensibly targeting children but containing violent or sexually suggestive content involving popular characters, videos of minors attracting pedophilic activities in their comment sections, and fluctuating policies on the types of content that is eligible to be monetized with advertising.