Unable to create a Child Family Account

Trying to set up an apple id with a new icloud account for a child. Constant failure with no indication as to the cause. Attempting on my MacBook and in my iPhone as well. open settings - family sharing - click the '+' to add - select "create child account" - click Next at the "Create Child account" window - enter the security code for the credit card associated with my account for parental consent - agree to Ts&Cs - Enter child's name and birthday, then click Get a free iCloud email address (also tried with an existing kids email account an entered the code that was emailed) and create a password... -- then it asks for Phone number to confirm for authentication

At this point of time I keep seeing this error

but still fails "There was a problem creating your new Apple ID. Your account cannot be created at this time".

Tried it after rebooting the MacBook and iPhone still no luck. There is no

Three different failures with no indication of the cause of the failure and no assistance available.