A couple of things. I don't know if you read the article but this is an adult male. I know that it says teenager, but it says that because he was 19 years old when he perpetrated his crime.
The second thing is that just because I agree that he knowingly broke the law in a way that could result in dire consequences for children, doesn't mean I agree to ruining his life in return but I am pointing out how we got here, which is that he broke the law and showed himself to pose a threat to children.
That threat isn't just about the threat to them financially in the event that someone were to steal their identity. This man threatened to release information on millions of children that could put them at risk to child predators including things like home addresses, family information, and medical information.
He knew that was wrong and he did it anyway. I'm sure rehabilitation is possible and I wish it were mandatory. The prison system in this country is fucked. But the system being messed up doesn't absolve him of the harm he threatened.
The alternative for someone who is addicted is to remove all technology from their homes and work places, throw an ankle monitor on them and force things like mandatory drug tests and check ins.
The point of the US prison system isn't to rehabilitate anyone, and the ankle monitor situation (house arrest) also doesn't really rehabilitate anyone. It also doesn't prevent him from doing further crimes and given that he claims to have an addiction to hacking and the fact that he himself says he should probably go to prison for what he did, I don't know what the a exact alternative is.