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Pranking has become big business.

All you need is a camera phone, an unsuspecting victim and an audience.

But as with any burgeoning and popular trend, there's always a chance it may become a victim of its own success. That someone, at some point, might be considered to have gone too far.

Mike and Heather Martin have recently had to deal with a large amount of backlash following one of their videos.

It involved them pranking their youngest son, nine-year-old Cody, for their YouTube channel, DaddyOFive , and has been strongly criticised by other parents for being "torturing" and "delusional."

The video begins with Heather explaining how she's got a bottle of invisible ink, saying: "I'm going to squirt it all over his [Cody's] carpet and start flipping out."

What follows is six minutes of very uncomfortable viewing.

Having squirted the ink all over the boy's bedroom, Heather starts screaming at him to get "get your f**king a** up here! What the f***?!"

Dad Martin joins in, also shouting "What did you do?!"

Cody runs upstairs where his apoplectic parents continue to scream and swear at him. There's ink everywhere.

To no one's surprise, he dissolves into tears, his distress painfully clear, repeating how he did not do it.

Even his brother gets dragged into it, when the parents switch their attention to him, yelling "You were f**king up here too?"

Eventually their mum bursts into laughter, admitting how the ink won't stain and it was all a joke.

While the channel has plenty of fans who no doubt saw the funny side, thousands of others have been horrified.

The critical comments soon added up, with Mike and Heather disabling that functionality on YouTube.

However, there are plenty of other forums where the debate rages on.

"This guy is beyond delusional. It's sickening to even think he's a legal guardian to five children," wrote one Redditor .

"This dad is sick doing this for a few grand a month," added another.

An Instagram user also weighed in, adding, "Why is mentally torturing your kids till they cry funny to you?"

In response to the critics, Heather and Mike issued an unapologetic rebuttal on YouTube called " Blocking all the haters! "

"Apparently a lot of people don't see the humour in it," Mike said.

"Was anybody traumatised?" asks Heather, to which the kids respond "no" (though Cody isn't sure what it means).

It seems the couple have however since reconsidered their reaction. Damage control appears on the Facebook page for DaddyOFive where a statement has been issued, reading:

"We have had a family meeting and reviewed many comments and concerns. We discussed different alternative for our future videos and ways we can improve.

"We deeply apologise for your feelings of concern.

"We DO NOT condone child abuse in any way, shape or form. As many of our friends and family would tell you we are a loving, close knit family and all enjoy making videos and having fun together."

This is shaping up to be a steep learning curve for the family, as others still condemned not just their actions, but their apology.

"Another classic 'We're not sorry we did it, just sorry that we got called out for being atrocious human garbage'" said one commentor.

"If you think the way you treat your kids is acceptable you need help. Your son is crying his eyes out asking you to stop filming and you won't. Anyone with a brain cell can see this is wrong. Pity you can't," added another.

They do have some supporters though still, as one men stepped in to defend them, saying:

"I think all the thin skinned snowflakes out there should get over themselves."

It'll be interesting to see what they do next.