Q: Daughter followed the links and bricked phone

If you changed the date to May 1970 or earlier and ... - Apple

The quick and easy solution to the 1970's bug is to have someone disconnect and reconnect the battery.  This will reset the clock. 
Any independent repair shop can do this for you---a 5 minute job.  Many will do it for free if you are forthcoming about the situation.

Caveat:  A trip to the independent repair shop may void your option for out of warranty replacement at Apple---i.e. you give Apple your phone and they sell you a refurbished one for $269, although I've never seen anyone actually get denied for OOW swap after independent repair.  Note: The current value of a good condition iPhone 5s is less than $269.

re: disconnecting the battery --

Why can you not just run your battery all the way down?

At some point would it not reach the same place as not having any battery?

Yes, same net effect.  Just time.  4 screws and 5 minutes but you need a professional.  Or wait hours for it to get dead.

in the end a battery reset is a battery reset.

Frazzlewitz wrote:

 

They followed the links to restore Retro theme.  Now the phone is acting differently. How can I resolve this.

Start here:

I set my iOS device to January 1, 1970...