Machelle Hobson, 48, from Arizona, United States, faces 30 charges of child abuse carried out while she ran the channel Fantastic Adventures about family life
A MUM behind a popular YouTube channel featuring kids has been charged with abusing five of her seven adopted children — if they failed to rack up enough views.
Machelle Hobson, 48, from Arizona, United States, allegedly punished them by pepper-spraying their genitals, forcing them into ice baths and beating them with clothes hangers.
One girl told cops that she endured pain for four-to-five-days afterwards as a result.
Hobson has also been accused of cruelly locking them “for days” in a wardrobe, where they were denied food, water, and access to a bathroom.
It is alleged Hackney repeatedly abused her adopted children whenever they didn’t perform well enough in her YouTube videos, uploaded to her “Fantastic Adventures” channel.
The youngsters have been featured acting in different scenarios, in the house or garden, and their antics were shared on YouTube where Hackney tried to entertain 700,800 subscribers.
But, if they failed to rack up enough views, cops said they were disciplined by being pepper sprayed from head-to-toe and made to take ice baths.
Although they have not revealed the children’s ages, it is believed several are under ten.
YouTube has now terminated the channel in light of what has been alleged.
Investigators said they found two cans of pepper spray in Hobson's bedroom, reports .
The children were badly malnourished and one starving child was reportedly fearful to eat a bag of crisps which police had given her because she did not want Hobson to smell them on her breath.
It's also alleged that the children were taken out of school so they could keep filming the video series and are now behind in their education.
Child Safety Director Gregory McKay said: "However much I wish someone would have detected these alleged horrors sooner, no one did."
The abuse came to light after Hobson's adult daughter contacted the police who then dispatched officers to the family home in the city of Maricopa, which is 35 miles south of Phoenix.
The Arizona Department of Child Safety have taken the children into care.
Hobson's two sons, Logan and Ryan Hackney, have been accused of failing to report abuse of a minor.
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