Y'know what, if a parent wants to put a helmet on their child... It's their choice, and I'm personally not going to question their parenting skills, nor accuse them of giving in to the 'man' for doing so.
Choice choice choice choice choice. Make sure it's informed, but different people can have different takes on the same information.
There are much, much bigger issues. Stop cyclists getting hit by cars and trucks, then have the helmet argument. It's ancillary, pointless, divisive, distracting, and pandering. Someone's on a bike, I personally don't give a toss what they're wearing. If a 6'6" burly guy rides by in a pink tutu, My Little Pony crop top and a tiara it'll still be his bike I'm looking at.
If you really want to criticise parents for giving in to pressures of 'danger perception' then divert your attention to SUV driving yummy mummies who are turnign their kids into miserable fat blobs with no concept of the outside world. Work back down the chain to what might actually be creating the culture of fear, rather than attacking the final symptom of it (a parent wanting their child to ride with a helmet). It's the old prevention/cure debate.
Helmets are merely a symptom, so get rid of the cause, and then see what happens.
(apologies, helmet debates make me grumpy - but by god we don't half tie ourselves in knots and do cycling a disservice at times).