Child pornography
The parents of the boy claim he was not harmed despite the video showing him crying as they applied hot sauce to his face (Representational image) iStock

People on social media were enraged after a video surfaced on the internet showing a couple using barbaric methods to toilet-train their young son. Titled "potty training 101", the footage shows parents using hot sauce to punish their son for not following instructions.

In the video, a man can be seen pouring the spicy sauce in the child's pants and smearing more on his face. The boy meanwhile cries in discomfort.

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The clip was first shared on Snapchat before Shana Honeycutt, a mother from Edmond posted it on Facebook and undentified the parents involved.

"[These parents] think putting hot sauce on your child's face and in their mouth is an appropriate way to potty train," she wrote alongside. "I'd never shame a mom like this unless it was warranted. I'm shaking for that poor baby."

Speaking to KWTV, Honeycutt described the act as child abuse. "You don't potty train by pouring hot sauce down a baby's pants and wiping it all over the face," she added.

The parents of the boy, however, defended their actions and said their son was not at any risk. "The video was played out to be something it wasn't," the child's mother, who chose to remain anonymous, said. "You can see that nothing went down his pants, and nothing was in his mouth...I would never put [my son] in harm's way."

She claimed her son is fond of hot sauce and was laughing after the video was taken.

Despite her explanation, Choctaw Police have opened an investigation into the issue and visited the family's home with an official from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.

They confirmed to News 9 that the child did not seem to be abused in anyway and was safe. Investigators are still trying to determine if the video constitutes child abuse but have urged people to report similar videos if they see them online.

"If something bothers you that much of what you're seeing, and you think it's important enough to share with your friends and family, you need to report it," DHS Communications Director Sheree Powell said according to the New York Post.

"Let this go to show you that there's a whoooooole lot of Facebook vigilantes out there that will find out everything down to your blood type if you hurt a baby," Honeycutt posted below the video which gained over 13,000 views.