i'm italian..
allow me to say, that LOT of people in italy have at best a rudimentary idea of macros needed, most will just say "i eat some pasta, some meat/fish, some fruits and i'm good"..
going vegan entails a required knowledge of the macro strictly needed to go on, while if you want to "grow up" as a vegan you have to tailor your eating habits around what it lacks..
for starter you'll lack iron, zinc, proteins, b12 and calcium..
and some of those are REALLY needed during the growth period..
so if you want to make your children grow up as vegan, the least you can do as a parent is to let a REPUTABLE medic produce a balanced diet for a growing kid while taking into full consideration vegan eating habit//restrictions..
most of times, this is not what happens..
and if you, hypothetic human being, became a vegan on your own just by word of mouth and generic internet//word of mouth conventions, most likely
1) you'll be unable to provide a balanced vegan plan for your growing kids
2) you'll most likely NOT go to a nutrition specialist to help you set up your kids nutrition plan..
so, honestly, i think this is a step in the right direction..
let the kids have a "generic" eating habit and then when they are grown, possibly with a balanced nutrition that comes easier if you don't impose any nutrient restriction source, allow them to choose what they want to eat...
granted, kids grow via emulation as well in the early stages, so some kids might try to "eat the same as their parent" out of sheer will, but even that is a situation that needs to be monitored..
jail might be excessive, but monitoring the kids of vegan people to ensure that their nutrition plan is at least "acceptable" would be something that nobody should disagree upon..
all of this is imho, clearly
p.s. i think obese kids should be monitored as well clearly, but let's take a step at a time..
p.s.2 now if they would send to jail (again) people for accounting/financial fraud, that would be higher on my "go-to-jail" list... :L