YouTube star mother accused of pepper-spraying adopted children to make them star in videos
A woman had been accused of adopting seven children and forcing them to perform for monetized YouTube videos. The 48-year-old woman, Machelle Hackney, was arrested on March 15 in Maricopa, Arizona, and was charged with seven counts of child abuse, five counts of unlawful imprisonment and two counts of child molestation. The mother, who goes by her maiden name of Hobson, runs the YouTube channel Fantastic Adventures, which had 800,000 subscribers and more than 250 million views in total.
The channel features the adopted children, who are between six and 15 years, performing in a variety of scripted adventures that include Nerf battles, and would always end with the children looking at the camera and asking for a "like and subscribe". Authorities have revealed, however, that the lives of the children off-camera were very different, Daily Mail reported.