In the case of children, isn't some of this on the parents involved as well? Have the parents of affected children talked to each other about it and reached out to the parents of the bullies to ask if they know their child's been bullying or however one might go about that conversation?

That said, Apple's certainly in the wrong in taking advantage of this, and in many ways it's no surprise. They're essentially a luxury brand, whose entire business model is exploiting this kind of behavior of social pressure and buying specific products to better fit into a group.