There have been a lot of reports lately about the dangers of damaging your hearing as a result of having your MP3 player’s volume turned up too loud. Philips are actually doing something about it. They’ve released a set of headphones aimed at children, which they claim will help protect the user’s hearing from the potential damages that could be caused through high volumes.

The headphones will be named the ‘Philips Children’s Headphones’ and they’ll come with a safety volume lock which will act much like the parental control found on Internet access. The lock will allow parents to control the volume that their children listen to their MP3 players.

Philips have acted after the recent studies into hearing loss came to light as a result of listening to MP3 players at very loud levels.

One such study was carried out at the Hearing Cooperative Research Centre in Australia, where they discovered that 1 in 6 Australians had contracted permanent hearing damage as a direct result to being exposed to high volumes caused by portable music devices, such as MP3 players.

Philips Australia general manager, Matt Moran said:

Philips is committed across its consumer lifestyle and healthcare businesses to improving people’s lives through innovative technological and healthcare solutions, so adding the ability to protect children from hearing loss is a great opportunity for us.

Following the trend of increasing sales in iPod, MP3 and Portable DVD products, the demand for specially designed children’s accessories including headphones is also growing at a rapid rate, providing retailers with a great add-on sales opportunity.