I’m in Canada. Go back not even 20-30 years ago, parents were still piercing their babies’ ears pretty regularly. It’s a pretty recent phenomenon that people started waiting for their children to grow older. Many still do it.

IMHO… A tiny 18g earring like they’re doing to babies is not particularly invasive, takes a handful of hours to stop being sore, will extremely rarely infect if done by a reputable piercer, and will naturally close back up once removed. As far as controversial practices go, earrings are amongst the most inconsequential. Permanent body altering stuff like non-medical circumcision, now this, I have an issue with…