When it comes to YouTubers Jonathan Joly and Anna Saccone, even their biggest fans would probably admit that they take an unorthodox approach to parenting.

From 2010 onwards, the couple notched up more than 1.6million subscribers by unleashing an almost nonstop stream of videos chronicling domestic life with their growing family. Their daily updates quickly started bringing in the sort of money that would see their estimated net wealth reach over £1million ($1.3m).

But then it all stopped. By 2020, their YouTube channel was no longer active – and the couple removed thousands of their lucrative clips in 2022 amid a storm of claims that they were exploiting their four children, who are now aged between six and 12, in a cynical ploy to keep the readies rolling in.

Since then, however, the couple have made a slow online comeback – and the parents popped up separately on social media last week to toast the 11th birthday of their daughter Edie, who many viewers previously knew as a boy called Eduardo.

At the very least, it all appears to undermine Mr Joly's claims almost exactly three years ago that he wanted to give his children the opportunity to 'curate their own life story on the internet' by deleting the videos.

On Instagram around the same time, he commented: 'I love my kids more than I love doing YouTube videos. I don't know if doing YouTube was the right or wrong thing to do, but I did it, so now I am undoing it.'

Jonathan Joly and Anna Saccone with their four children 

Mr Joly was named Celebrity Dad of the Year over Prince William and Declan Donnelly in 2019

However, a quick search on YouTube reveals that much of the footage thought to have been deleted back in 2022 has since reappeared on the couple's original channel.

Meanwhile, it seems to be business as usual for both Mr Joly and Ms Saccone as they resume the relentless parading of their offspring across various social media platforms.

Yet if the videos are there online for all to see, so are the endless critical comments on social media about the youngsters being 'blatantly exploited' and filmed in 'inappropriate' circumstances.

It is, in certain respects, a story of our times. We all know by now how 'vlogging' (video blogging) has become a reliable money-spinner in some quarters over recent years, even for those who are sharing the most mundane aspects of everyday life.

Among the biggest success stories were Mr Joly and his wife, who live in considerable style in a seven-bedroom Surrey mansion with their children.

They posted no less than 2,900 videos of their apparently blissful family life over a ten-year period and, in 2019, Mr Joly was even named Celebrity Dad of the Year over a field of contenders that included Prince William and Declan Donnelly.

First things first, though. The SacconeJolys – the name of their YouTube show – were raised in separate parts of Ireland and they both later studied at Arts University Bournemouth.

Mr Joly, 45 – who has a master's degree in digital media production – grew up in Dublin and received some of his education at the fee-paying Terenure College, which also counts best-selling author John Boyne and the late comedian Dave Allen among its past pupils. He has spoken in the past about growing up in an unhappy household and being bullied by other youngsters.

Ms Saccone was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to an Italian father and half-Irish mother, moving to Cork when she was eight. Now aged 37, she has previously told how she started posting videos of fashion and make-up tips during a 'lonely' period when she was around 20.

She said: 'We'd moved away and I didn't have any friends.

'It wasn't a business – it wasn't what it is right now – and I definitely didn't think I could make a career out of it. That wasn't the motivation at all.'

But when she started receiving small cheques for her videos – the first payment was $45 or $50 – she said her future husband realised that 'we could actually make a living from this', adding: 'He was way more strategic in that sense.'

Perhaps the first notable recording they made together – and one that set the tone for future productions – was on September 11, 2012. Called 'Lives Changed For Ever!', filming began at 5.40am as the couple prepared to leave their home for Cork University Hospital where Ms Saccone was about to give birth to their first child.

The 16 minutes of footage, which ends with the ecstatic new mum cuddling baby daughter Emilia, has been viewed more than 5.4million times on YouTube.

At one point in the proceedings, Mr Joly faces his audience to say: 'I know that September 11 is a real sad day for all my US viewers, but let's hope that Emilia can bring a little bit of happiness to a day which is known for sadness.'

By the time he gets around to the video for their fourth baby, he helpfully explains as the camera pans around the delivery room floor: 'That's what it look likes when your waters break, folks.'

Unsurprisingly, Mr Joly – whose speaking voice seems to owe more to an AI-created transatlantic disc jockey than it does to his native Dublin – sounds particularly excited as he delivers his childbirth narration.

The husband and wife have been accused of exploiting their children for profit - in particular their trans daughter Edie, pictured in pink top and skirt

Mr Joly and Ms Saccone are now largely operating separately on social media – prompting unfounded speculation that they are no longer a couple 

But perhaps that's just his default setting because he seems to be excited all the time, which might explain his liberal use of exclamation marks when naming his videos.

Even the couple's most devoted fans are hardly likely to have seen every single one of the videos, of course, given the sheer number of them.

But scrolling through the clips posted on the YouTube channel, the punctuation quirk quickly becomes apparent. A random selection of the clips includes ones called 'Trick Or Treating With Four Kids!', '48 Hours In A Campervan With 4 Kids!!!', 'What We Wore To The Wedding!!', 'Doing My Daughters [sic] makeup!' and 'Baby's First Swimming Lesson!'.

There is also footage of the couple's transgender daughter Edie, then aged eight, wearing girls' clothes and ringlets. It shows her miming to a song from the Disney Channel production High School Musical 2 in a video captioned to suggest she is 'talking to her past self and telling him she has to go her one [sic] way'.

It is interesting given that Mr Joly – writing in a 2022 memoir titled All My Friends Are Invisible – admitted of his own childhood: 'I wanted to wear my sister's dresses, I wanted to play with girls, I wanted to be a girl.'

Of Edie, he has remarked separately: 'She's beautiful, she's amazing because she is a perfect mix of a girl and a boy.

'I think the emotional intelligence of a child is something that people think, 'Oh no, she can't have those feelings and have those emotions'. But if you talk to any adult trans people, they will tell you that they were trans from the day they were born.'

He added: 'People will say you're forcing it on her or she is too young to know what's going on.

'But I'm like, that is your lack of exposure to that environment. You don't have a trans child, you are not a trans person.'

Unsurprisingly, comments such as these prompted an outpouring of negative reaction. On Reddit, a post from 'Vapor2077' remarked on the children being 'so blatantly exploited' and getting 'pretty much no privacy' – adding: 'And if the videos with the kids are the family's main source of income, that's a lot of pressure to put on kids that young.'

It also says: 'The kids are routinely videoed in scenarios that J&A may see as innocent but that I think are inappropriate. There are many videos of them in swimsuits and they also let them wear crop tops and other revealing outfits.

'The kids also often have on a full face of makeup – not just a little lip gloss or mascara, but full-on pageant makeup. Not okay.'

Another post, from 'Anditwaslove', observed: 'It's not Edie's transition that is the problem. It's the exploitation of it.

'Her story is hers and she should be able to tell it in her own time if she chooses to. They have made being trans her entire identity.'

It goes on and on. But Mr Joly has remained defiant about posting Edie's journey online, saying that she is happy to be in the videos and that he wants to spread awareness of gender issues. 

For their part, Mr Joly and Ms Saccone are now largely operating separately on social media – prompting unfounded speculation that they are no longer a couple.

Mr Joly has now embarked on his own social media channel. Among the videos he has posted is one titled 'My DAUGHTER Went On Her FiRST DATE *emotional', in which he 'helps' Edie prepare by buying her clothes, make-up – and an iPad to give to her date.

And in recent days, both Mr Joly and Ms Saccone went online to celebrate Edie's birthday.

In a short questions-and-answers session on her mum's TikTok account, the 11-year-old described big sister Emilia as her role model and said: 'I've always wanted to be like her.'

It was a rather more elaborate production over on her father's solo YouTube channel, where he now has more than 2.4million subscribers and has posted upwards of 1,000 videos.

The 27-minute video followed Edie as she received 11 different surprises to mark the big day.

Not everyone is trying to put the knife in, though. One of the Reddit observations from 'Anditwaslove' reads: 'It's truly sad. I think they have genuinely deluded themselves into thinking that the pros of doing what they do outweigh the cons because of the lifestyle it provides.

'I deeply worry about these kids.'