According to the Journal of Pediatrics (2005), 12.5 percent of kids between the ages of 6 and 19 suffer from loss of hearing as a result of using ear phones turned to a high volume. A major contributor to this significant statistic is the recent introduction of earbuds (small speakers that fit inside your ear) and MP3 players that allow kids and teens to listen to music at high volumes without anyone else knowing the volume. Many kids and teens think that hearing loss only happens to older people, commonly grandparents, but the age of the onset of hearing damage is decreasing.

Walkmans and portable music players have been around for a while, so what is all this talk about MP3 players and hearing damage? Other portable music players only hold one CD or cassette at a time, so the listener is not damaging their ears if they only use it for a short time. However, MP3 players can store thousands of songs, resulting in a longer hours of use. The common earbuds on MP3 players deliver the sound directly into the ear canal, eliminating other sounds.

Brian Fligor, a doctor at the Children’s Hospital in Boston, explains that when volume is increased by three decibels, if you listen for only half as long, it produces the same hearing damage as listening for the full duration at three decibels lower. He also says that typically, someone who is exposed to more than 85 decibels of sound for eight hours damages their hearing.

So how do you know if you have damaged your ears with your music? One way to tell is if you are hearing people’s voices less clearly, and you are frequently asking someone to repeat something because you did not hear it. Also, if your family asks you to turn down the television because it is too loud, but you hear it at a normal level, you may be experiencing hearing damage. One surefire way to tell your music is too loud is if others who are not wearing the earbuds can hear the music playing in your ears.

Experts recommend not listening to a music player for more than one hour per day. This may seem unreasonable to many teens who listen while they do homework, on the bus, on an airplane, waiting in line, working out or just walking around. Often, people use earbuds to try to cover up the already loud noise around them, but this causes even more damage because they have to turn the volume up even higher.

The two problems that arise from this loud volume for long durations of time are called tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss. These both occur when the tiny, sensitive nerve endings in your ear suffer trauma from high noise levels.

Other research shows that the amount of noise in the world has increased 300 percent in the last 30 years. This proves that people who want to enjoy their music at the same level that their parents did have had to increase the volume by a lot.

In France, Apple capped the highest sound level on an iPod at 100 decibels, which is still loud enough to cause damage to hearing. A man from Louisiana, John Patterson, is suing Apple for not giving enough warning to its customers about the possibility of damaging their hearing by using their iPods. In America, iPods can reach sound levels of over 115 decibels. Some argue that it is the customer’s choice how loud they choose to listen to their music―not the choice of the company from whom they bought their music player. Others argue that it is the company’s duty to protect its customers. Either way, keep the volume and length of your listening to a minimum, and you will thank yourself later in life.