More and more children are use headphones regularly to listen to music, watch YouTube videos, or play games. The use of smartphones and other portable players as well as the popularity of chat games, such as Fortnite or PUBG, and the wide variety of headphones available for both portable devices and video consoles are the culprits of this situation.
To this we must add that parents also often "force" them to do so so that they do not bother the rest of the family, and as a result, the youngest of the house can spend several hours a day with these accessories in the most accused cases. And this can have important consequences on your hearing abilities, according to a recent study.
The study in question has been carried out in a sample of 3.000 children between the ages of 9 and 11, and it concludes that among children who used portable music players (with headphones) there is a three times greater risk of suffering hearing loss compared to those who do not use these devices. The losses were also in the high-pitched range, which is precisely the type that is most affected by exposure to loud sounds.
In Europe there is a law that requires limiting the sound of the players below 85 decibels, not so in the United States, which is where the study was carried out, so we do not know what data we would obtain if we used a sample of 3.000 children Europeans. But common sense forces us to take these data into account and, in addition to limiting the use of headphonesWe will have to teach the little ones how to use them and to know what is the correct volume at which we should listen to music. Starting to lose hearing abilities at age 9 is not recommended.