(CNN) The "Fantastic Adventures" YouTube channel has racked up more than 250 million views, with its adorable cast of seven adopted children, silly topics and charmingly low-fi visual effects.

Behind the scenes, though, the children told a different story. A welfare check last week found the home was a den of abuse in which their mother would withhold food and water for days at a time, pepper-spray them, force them to take ice baths and lock them in a barren closet, according to a statement of probable cause in Maricopa, Arizona.

"They stated they are disciplined in the manners above if they do not recall their lines or do not participate (in the videos) as they are directed to," the probable cause statement said.

"They further stated this is one of the reasons their mom took them out of school so they can keep filming their series and they mentioned they have not been in school for years."

Police on Friday arrested their mother, Machelle Hobson, 47, on two counts of molestation of a child, seven counts of child abuse, five counts of child neglect and five counts of unlawful imprisonment. The Pinal County Sheriff's Office mistakenly listed her last name as Hackney but later provided her correct surname.

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