I'm sure some of it is prohibited by Geneva convention. But like Clara mentioned, it's not about what the U.S. does to it's prisoners. It's about training our military to be prepared for what might happen to them if they are captured by others.
The training, BTW, is all 'classified', but I tried to be vague enough so as to not 'share' stuff I shouldn't.
And things may have changed in the interim. This was 20 years ago.
But yes, that someone would encourage parents to treat a child in a manner that could be considered an 'international war crime' in certain contexts; that is appalling.