How to Select the Right Headphones for Kids

How BuddyPhones Came to Be

We started focusing on making children-friendly headphones when one of our founder's wives could not find specially-made headphones for kids. When we looked into the market, it was driven by-products more like toys than audio products. Or they were products made for adults and called children's headphones.

We realized the market was missing a tailor-made solution for kids. A safe solution that has the lifestyle attributes to serve kids in the best way possible. Truly putting children at the heart of the brand. This is how ONANOFF and BuddyPhones were born as a dedicated audio brand for children and education.

BuddyPhones SafeAudio Solution

We have been awarded 4 CES Innovation awards in the headphones category for our product. We are still the only children's headphone brand to ever get one.

We go the extra mile to ensure our products are the safest and most fitting for kids, from how we do our SafeAudio® to our product durability testing. In addition, we select only the safest materials possible for children and our planet and have certifications from key governmental agencies under our belt.

This, matched with our technologies and features like StudyMode or InFlight settings, makes us stand out.

Kid's Headphones 

There is an excellent variety of headphones marketed for children out there. Some brands are setting the SPL level with a relatively low signal voltage. We have surveyed many phones and other source devices and selected a signal level that better represents real-world devices.

Note that the European standard of 50332 implies 150mV, much lower than many devices, including iPhone. Therefore some "kid's headphones" can be much louder than they claim to be when hooked up to a source product such as an iPhone or an iPad.

Some kids' headphones exposure is only measured for 1khz dB level, which is misleading when they are marketed as 85dB level headphones. Other headphones sold for kids allow a broad level of variance of the audio exposure for their headphones, all the way up to +/- 6dB, almost doubling the average sound exposure.

Children & Technology

The Covid pandemic has definitely impacted how children use technology. It has changed the category from being entertainment-driven to being educational. This means that before, kids used headphones mainly to experience YouTube, watch cartoons, and use fun, entertaining apps.

On the other hand, headphones have become a virtual education device at home and in school. As a result, the educational tech industry is growing, and headphones are becoming as important in education as a pencil.

How to Select The Right Headphones for Kids

• Is the product genuinely a SafeAudio one. One that has been specifically made for kids?
• Select a brand that puts value into the product, using the safest materials that are durable and that have been certified by key regulative parties.
• Parents should also look at how they are going to use the headphones.
• How do the headphone's features fit into the kid's lifestyle?
• Look at their educational, entertainment, and travel needs.
• Are they using headphones mainly for gaming or for studying?
• Do they need voice recording features such as a beam mic or noise-canceling settings to block background noise?

We recommend sitting down and making a list of how you picture your child using a pair of headphones before going out there to hunt for the right pair.