Man, in viral video, reportedly pours hot sauce down child’s pants for potty training

A video featuring a man reportedly pouring hot sauce down an Oklahoma child's pants — and rubbing it on the child's face — in order to potty train the child has gone viral.

What's in the video?

The footage — a brief Snapchat video — depicts a man picking up a child and holding him in what appears to be a bathroom, and later shows the man apparently pouring what appears to be hot sauce down the child's pants. After the man puts the child down, the child can be seen squirming, and then the man takes it a step further: he shakes out the alleged hot sauce into his open palm and can be seen smearing his hand over the child's mouth.

The child can be heard crying loudly in response.

The video is captioned "potty training 101."

How did it turn up?

The child's mother reportedly shared the video to a closed Facebook group, where it ruffled many feathers.

One of the women who spotted the video — Shana Honeycutt — told KFOR-TV that she was "literally shaking and crying" after she watched the disturbing video.

"I absolutely, 100 percent believe that putting hot sauce in your child's pants and wiping it on their face is absolutely child abuse," Honeycutt told the station.

"He told me, when he was a child, that it was done to him," Honeycutt recalled the man in the video saying.

"I'm a mother, also. I have a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old, and I can't imagine doing that to my child myself, let alone a man I'm dating," Honeycutt added.

According to KFOR, the child's mother said that the boy is fine.

She told KWTV-TV that what happened in the video is not all that it appears, and asked to remain anonymous after receiving death threats.

"You can see that nothing went down his pants, and nothing was in his mouth," the child's mother told KWTV.

She added that the child loves hot sauce, and was laughing after the video stopped rolling.

"The video was played out to be something it wasn't," she said. "My son, I would never put him in harm's way."

What are officials doing about it?

KFOR reported that the video caught the attention of both the Choctaw and Midwest City police, and also that of the Department of Human Services.

Casey White, a spokesperson for the Department of Human Services, told KFOR, "I you see something on social media, one great thing that would really help us out is if you could either, when you called, go ahead and call the hotline, but, then, if you could provide the name of the person who posted the video."

"Then, like I said, even better would be to either record or screenshot that video or that picture," she added.

According to KFOR, "DHS officials can't specifically comment on the case but said they urge people to call their hotline if they suspect any type of abuse."

Choctaw Police told KWTV that they visited the boy's home with the Department of Human Services on Wednesday night, and told the station that the child "appeared to be in a safe home."

According to KWTV, the investigation is ongoing.