According to the Journal of Pediatrics, 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 are earbuds (small speakers that fit inside your ear) and MP3 players that allow people to listen to music at high volumes. Many teens think that hearing loss only happens to older people, but people are losing their hearing at increasingly younger ages.

Walkmans and portable music players have been around for a while, so what is all this talk about MP3 players and hearing damage? The answer lies in the sheer number of songs MP3 players can hold. Other portable music players only hold one CD or cassette at a time, so people listened for a shorter time. However, MP3 players can store thousands of songs, resulting in a longer hours of use. Also, the earbuds common 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. 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? If you answer yes to these questions, you may be experiencing hearing damage.

• Are you hearing people's voices less clearly?
  
• Are you frequently asking people to repeat themselves?
  
• Does your family ask you to turn down the television because it is too loud, but you hear it at a normal level?

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. However, keep the volume and length of your listening to a minimum, and you will thank yourself later in life.