Nothing in the scenario you have described will come as a suprise to anyone working in the airline industry, it could have been any airline anywhere which makes posting it here rather pointless, you could try a travel magazine.
10 and 7, longhaul, with a connecting flight in a far flung part of the world is madness in my book and.........oh, sorry you didn't need advice did you. Oh well I don't suppose you will do it again, a lesson well learned with no harm done. I can't for the life of me work out why airlines offer the service in the first place, there is little financial gain and whole lot of trouble to be had if it goes wrong. No one under 16 without a parent or guardian would be my rule.