The problem isn't an individual kids phone. It's their peers devices, or other ways they can explore the internet that isn't under their guardians control. This is a systemic issue that requires systemic approach. I am not making any claims about the qualities of currently discussed systemic solutions, but I do want to point out that the 'parents can just' argument is missing the mark.
All of the kids will get a fake account and a VPN? Putting barriers in place will likely have some effect in the intended direction.
> This assumes that it will actually solve the problem anyway
I wouldn't expect any policy to _solve_ a problem in such a way that the problem completely disappears from the world, much like theft being illegal doesn't eliminate theft, but it sure distinctiveness it for a lot of people.
You do know that many sites don’t work with a vpn. Like this one. You can’t create an account on HN with a vpn. Also, countries are starting to ban vpn ip blocks entirely. In fact, turkey was monitoring tor entry nodes and disappearing whomever provided them. Banned tor pretty damn fast. Vpns can be turned off in a snap.
I promise you that a hacker news does not have all known public VPN egress IPS blocked.
Even the big commercial providers that are advertising all over YouTube are constantly changing IP space so they can keep their customers able to pop into another Geo region and still get Netflix.