Your headphones may be dangerous.

It is no more news that listening to loud music can impact your hearing,
but most people probably hear that and think of a loud rock concert. But researchers and groups like the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control have established that routine exposure to moderately loud sounds can permanently damage your hearing, with up to 1.1 billion people at risk.That's especially true of children, who frequently listen to music at max volume .
We recently took a look at this when testing for our roundup of the best headphones for kids , and we found that even something as simple as an Apple iPhone 7 Plus and the included earbuds can dramatically exceed the recommended levels at full volume, posing a risk after just a few minutes.
How Loud is Too Loud?
One night at a concert is enough to realize that loud noises can damage your hearing. But at what point are you risking serious long-term damage? Unfortunately, though health experts have been studying this for decades, there isn't a clear point at which damage is guaranteed to occur.
What is certain is that noise-induced hearing loss is a real problem in adolescents, and it can have dramatic impacts on their academic performance. Headphones are likely a major reason for this, and headphone use has been on the rise since the mid-90s.
The consensus is that you are at risk of noise-induced hearing loss if you're exposed to an average volume of 85 decibels for 8 hours in a day . If you're into being specific, those are A-weighted decibels (or dB(a) for short), which just means that the average is weighted to line up with the sounds that our ears are most sensitive to.
For every 3dB(a) above 85 you go, the hazardous exposure time gets cut in half. So if you're listening to 100dB—from, say, headphones—you could be at risk after just 15 minutes.For instance, those cheap earbuds that came with your iPhone 7 Plus can average 105dB at full volume according to tests, and it has been seen others get up to around 109-110dB(a).
It's important to note that we're not entirely sure where the safe zone really ends, and because noise-induced hearing loss is irreversible, caution is definitely the way to go. As a result, the WHO recommends limiting headphones to just 85dB(a) . An easy rule to follow is the " 60/60 rule " which is to limit headphone time to 60 minutes per day with the volume set no higher than 60% of the max.
What About Volume-Limiting Headphones?
There are two ways to limit yours or your child's exposure to loud headphones: turn the volume down on your player or use so-called "volume-limiting" headphones that don't get as loud as a regular pair. To reduce the incoming volume, these headphones all employ some kind of resistor to limit the amount of power sent to the headphones, either in the cable, in some kind of removable adapter, or in the headphones themselves. In the simplest terms: Less power means less volume.
The good news is that every pair of headphones can be used safely if you just turn the volume down,and you should be able to understand someone speaking to you at arm's length while music is playing. Most phones and tablets even have parental controls, letting you set a maximum that can't be exceeded.
Volume-limiting headphones are great alternative, especially since kids these days use headphones in places where you may not have control, like with a car's entertainment system, on an airplane, or with their Playstation or Xbox. These headphones are generally marketed as topping out at either 85dB(a) or 93dB(a), with language that makes you think that's as loud as they possibly go.
The problem? As The Wirecutter and The New York Times first noticed, many of these headphones are not nearly as volume-limiting as they claim to