Monitoring Noise Levels for Kids

If you grew up in the age before portable music devices, then your childhood likely did not include much time spent with headphones. Perhaps you might have plugged a set of cans into a record player or radio, but most often those times of solitary enjoyment were relatively brief.

Even if you grew up in the era of portable cassette or CD players, you were not likely to listen with headphones all day long. The advent of portable media such as movies, television, podcasts, and music all available to stream through a smartphone or laptop has radically increased the prevalence of headphone use, and that use is not limited to adults.

Indeed, young people are using headphones at remarkable rates, and those headphones and earbuds come with serious risks of hearing damage. Let’s consider the common uses of headphones for kids, as well as the risks that loud volumes, particularly loud volumes for long times, can pose to their young ears.

Risky Volumes

When children or young people are using headphones or earbuds, they are engaging in a variety of activities. Some are listening to a song or the audio for a brief video on social media. Others are checking out a brief clip on YouTube that might be only a few minutes long.

However, when young people are using headphones and earbuds for gaming, watching full movies or television series, or even for educational programs including distance learning, they can be subjected to audio for extended periods of time. We know that not only is the volume level an important concern for those who use headphones but the duration of use also poses a higher risk of hearing loss as that time increases.

Take, for instance, the commonly used Apple music player available on an iPhone. The maximum volume on that device is 102 decibels. This volume is comparable to a leaf blower, and it can be used for a very brief time without causing permanent hearing damage. Experts report that only 10 minutes is a safe length of time for using an iPhone at full volume.

Although setting the volume level at 70 percent is generally safe for a full 8 hours, the risks increase drastically beyond that decibel level. Even at 80 percent volume, a decibel level of 89 dB, the device should only be used for 90 minutes. When a young person is watching a feature-length film or taking part in educational activities for distanced learning, that threshold of time can easily be passed without noticing.

Protecting Young Hearing

When it comes to hearing loss due to noise damage, the current research shows that it tends to be permanent. Although innovative new technologies are being researched and developed every day, none has been successful in restoring hearing once it has been lost to hearing damage.

In order to help your child protect hearing ability into adult life, it is crucial to monitor the length and volume of headphone use. Parents have taken different tactics to make sure their children are protected. Some can monitor the volume level of devices through accompanying apps.

Software developers are even working on creating protections that parents can place on devices to set a maximum volume. Yet, one of the most important solutions to pursue is to monitor the time of use. With headphones or earbuds in place, it is easy to forget how long your child has been using them, particularly since you can’t hear what’s going on inside or how loud the volume has been.

Set some boundaries around the appropriate use of headphones or earbuds. If your child is involved in distance learning, you might want to require using external speakers simply so you can get a sense of how long the programming has been taking place. It is more difficult to set an external speaker to a damaging volume without raising alarm.

Whatever strategy you take to protect your children’s hearing, it is important to remain vigilant, and don’t forget to protect your own hearing, as well. Although it is easy to become absorbed in media or music, particularly if you are binge watching a television program, keep your eye on the clock and the volume level to protect your own hearing.