I apologize for posting another answer, but apparently everyone, including me, missed a very simple proof why the product is never a square, which is indeed suitable for children: just consider everything modulo $4$. If the number ends in $77$ it is congruent to $1$ modulo $4$, and $7 \equiv 3\pmod 4$, and $3$ is not a square mod $4$.
Aleksei Kulikov
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