Nitwit phones for children are a choice you make. They do not just pop out of the ether.
Your children's companions are also, at least partly, a choice that you make as a parent.
And if the argument is that the "other" parent is the one allowing those things, you picked him/her as well.
Raising kids is, as you know, not easy now days. But it never really was. Which is why so many kids have gone wrong over the eons.
Many kids I know were raised conservatives and homeschooled. Now in 20s and thirties they a proud tattooed freaks. The internet can win.