A US mother and father have had child services take two of their children away from them after a series of YouTube videos were posted online depicting them emotionally and physically abusing their kids.

The couple became YouTube stars on account of their pranks, which would see them blame or deceive their children into thinking they had done something wrong or that something serious would happen to them.

They did it under the YouTube channel DaddyOFive, which has more than 760,000 subscribers - but last month a series of videos emerged showing them carrying out pranks that have been labelled cruel and unfunny.

Some depicted the couple insulting, swearing and yelling at their kids for things they didn't do as they cried hysterically, while another showed the father violently pushing his youngest son, Cody, into a bookshelf.