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Who is really to blame for this? A company that puts it out there for people, or a parent who lets that kid join?
It's great in theory to say that parents should just not let their kids join. In practise it's remarkably difficult to stop it.
After a certain age it's pretty much expected that a child will have their own phone, and that age is getting progressively younger. Not having a phone leads to a degree of social exclusion. Of course having a phone leaves the child vulnerable to other issues, largely associated with social media bullying etc.
Yes, there are ways to secure a phone. Parents can check what is on their child's phone and shut it off if the child does not comply. That doesn't necessarily stop the child from installing apps at school and then uninstalling them before they get home. In a world where most kids are more technologically competent than their parents it's not as simple a proposition as it first appears.
My generation did just fine without cellphones. When I was a teenager there was no such thing as a cellphone. But now people expect to be able to reach other people, more or less any time, and expect a response fast. It's just another way for kids to exclude other kids - you know, if that 12-year-old with a single parent living in a trailer park didn't have enough to worry about, now they can't afford the latest iPhone so have to put up with a cheaper option, which is just another way they don't quite fit in.
