Bit hard when its the dad thats non-existant in the kids life buying them a iphone @ 12. Restrict the usage of that and see how well your relationship with your kid holds up.
Had this happen to us, my partners kids. Its a subtle attempt to destabilize and subvert her authority as parent figure even though old mate isn't even around, hasn't been for years and still is an abusive S*t. We got forced to buy a iphone in order to put parent restrictions on. Its shits as. I hate apple. Company does bulk crap that enables abusers and does piss all to prevent it or be like hey...maybe this is a ethically shit thing to implement. Maybe its gonna cause a whole host of people grief. Don't even get me started on apple air tags.
There are many reasons why it's not that simple. My kid may be old enough to make the decision on which phone to buy, but not old enough to have unrestricted access to it. I may be divorced, and the device might have been given to them buy another parent. The device might have necessary features that are missing from other non-Apple device.
Yep. I have a general 'no Apple' rule in my house, but my stepdaughter came home with an iPhone from her dad. It wasn't done with evil intent, but it got her stuck in the Apple ecosystem, and it's disjoint from the rest of us.
That's actually your choice if it's your choice whether/which apps they can install.