The assumption there is that the parents can afford a car... they most likely couldn't.
I made no such assumption. I addressed my comment to AN members who have money and kids of driving age. I've seen decent beaters in Thailand for well under 100K baht. Look hard enough and you can find one for 30-40K. In better shape than the cars I drove as a poor student at that age. Back when CBs were a thing, my handle was "Rust Bucket" and nobody had to guess which car was mine, even from half a mile away. But it was safe...
Even with western standard driver's ed, scooters are 20-40x more dangerous per km driven than cars. That's from studies done in the USA and Aus. Drivers ed and helmets help, but they don't equalize the risk. Not even close.