Check out the toddler in front of the driver (you can see his right leg). That's how it is in Thailand, and I'd expect most of Asia.
This is a motorcycle taxi about to drive 3 young children somewhere through the insane Bangkok traffic. It looks like the driver may be putting a helmet (fit for an adult head) on the toddler in front, but the other two kids will not wear helmets. I was shocked when I first saw this, and this wasn't the first, or only, time I saw it. I've seen families of 4 (mother, father, two children, with one of the children an infant in the mother's arm) riding motorcycles in this crazy traffic, with no one wearing a helmet.
I also took motorcycle taxis without wearing a helmet. It's kind of harrowing, because the traffic is so crazy in Bangkok. The motorcycle drivers weave in and out and squeeze in between cars wherever they can. I was always afraid my knees would smash into an on coming car. That's how close they come, at high speeds sometimes too. It's scary, but also kind of exhilarating. Helmets are available for single passengers, but no one wears them. Most of the drivers wear them though.
It was kind of appalling to see at first, being from America, and knowing that could never happen here. (In some states you don't have to wear a helmet, but you would never see multiple children on a motorcycle, helmets or not. I'm sure it's illegal here.) Plus knowing how dangerous and crazy that traffic is. But then I came to the realization that I was not in America and things are different, and acceptible, in the rest of the world. You can see the girl looking at me like, "why are you taking our picture?"
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