OK, I'll 'fess up here, only because there might be a chance that doing so might actually accomplish something constructive.
I started being sexually curious in the second grade. Not like, "you show me yours, I'll show you mine", but far more serious. By the time I was nine -- this was before there was much of such a thing as an internet -- I had seen hardcore porn videos that I wasn't supposed to, and I had an appetite for many more.
In my family, this sort of behavior was strictly taboo. Nobody talked about it, nobody wanted to be involved. This resulted in my sneaking about and figuring out most of it on my own; it didn't at all slow down my curiosity.
Restrictions? Oh, that was tried. My parents went so far as to install a fire control box over the power strip to the computer. I quickly discovered that I could toggle the switch by slipping a bicycle spoke down the gap in the top. I got very good at this.
I swore to myself, while growing up, that I'd never forget what it was like to be young, and for the most part I've kept that oath. When I was little, I had concluded that all the trouble between kids and adults was the result of adults forgetting what it's like to be a kid. I still, mostly, hold to that.
A 9 year can be smart. They're not likely to use the same judgement as an adult, but that's only because they lack experience, not intelligence. They can think things through, they can reason, they can figure things out. They can be sharper and even more creative than adults.
So when parents think that they're "disciplining" their child by restricting the child's access to something, all they're really doing is, a: indicating to the child that they don't trust them; b: indicating to the child that it's not a matter open to discussion; and c: leaving the child to go elsewhere, unsupervised, to do the same damn thing anyway.
Kids have to be raised on a case-by-case basis. The parents in this article had a tough decision to make in this case: do they create an opportunity for him to explore his sexuality in the relative safety of their home, with their occasional guidance; or do they try to prevent those activities, and in the end only encourage him to sneak off and do it anyway without their observation and guidance?
That's not a false dichotomy, either. Those really are their only options.
I think they made the right decision, not because I'm a parent (I'm not), but because I was a kid.