How to Protect Your Child’s Hearing from Too-Loud Headphone Audio

Loud sounds are harmful to everyone, and many parents worry that their children are at risk for hearing loss due to too-loud headphone audio from iPhones and iPads. To lower the likelihood of this happening, Apple provides a Reduce Loud Sounds option in Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Headphone Safety for both iOS and iPadOS. Select it and set a limit, with 80–85 decibels generally considered safe. To keep kids from increasing the limit, go to Settings > Screen Time and set a Screen Time passcode. Then navigate into Content & Privacy Restrictions, enable the switch at the top, and then scroll down and set Reduce Loud Sounds to Don’t Allow. After that, the headphone output from all apps will be capped at the decibel level you specified.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Ivan Zhdanov)