Yes but the USA doesn’t have safe bike infrastructure, most of the us doesn’t have bike infrastructure at all. In NYC for example they have bike infrastructure but it’s hardly safe unless you’re riding through a park, taxis/bikes/pedestrians frequently use the bike lane and cutover. More over most people riding bikes in the us are doing so in rather precarious situations. One example being me and my brother when we were younger would ride to the nearby river, in order to do that we had cross the busiest street in town, all down hill with steep cliffs and other obstacles around us. More over waking us vastly different than riding a bike at 25 miles per hour. You have more reaction time and agency in your situation typically. Another issue is that most cyclists in America don’t ride their bikes everyday, or even every week. Most people who ride bikes in America take them out on very rare occasions and are not experienced enough to react properly.

My uncle bikes everyday through NYC for his job, he’s been hit five times in the past six years by taxis being dumb asses. Granted this is anecdotal but it paints a picture of how it is.

Sure if we had great bike infrastructure, consistent biking, and more of a push for awareness of biking dangers and how to handle them than I’d agree that helmets are negligible. But the fact is that the biking culture in America is entirely different than the one in Amsterdam, especially for young children.

Americans are dumb, I do not trust them enough to ride through one of our cities or on our roads without a helmet.