Child account can't download ANY apps

Just bought an iPhone for my 12 year old (early birthday - turning 13 in a month). Made him an Apple ID and put him on as Family Sharing. I can log into his account (password works fine) and I get notifications when I make changes to his account. The problem is I can't seem to download ANY apps from app store. I click on "get" and a message pops up wanting password. I put it in and then the "get" button shows up again. No message about asking for permission from parent and I don't ever get a notification. Even if I turn off "Ask to Buy" in Family Sharing, he still can't download any apps. Only way I could get apps on his phone is to sign him off and log myself in and then download the apps. Can't figure out what is wrong. I even tried logging him into my iPad and got the exact same problem. Has something to do with his Apple ID and age - but it is not sending me any notifications and doesn't even give a message about asking for notifications. Just doesn't do anything. The phone is supposed to be a surprise and I really don't want to give it to him if he can't put any apps on it. I've emailed (not sure why I can't call support since I've had the phone for 2 days) Apple support, but it's going to take 48 hours for a reply - I know there is going to be multiple messages going back and forth, so could take much longer to figure this out. Considering I've spent about 8 hours already today trying to fix this out, I should have just driven the 1.5 hours to the nearest Apple store for help. Any suggestions?