- JBL Junior Free earphones launch for £69.99 (approx $90 / AU$140)
- WHO recommended volume limit plus your own settings for time and volume
- Open ear designs mean they can still hear what’s around them
JBL has launched a new set of open-ear headphones designed especially for children, the JBL Junior Free headphones. As you’d expect, they’re designed for smaller ears – and they’re also designed to protect those ears from excessively loud sounds.
The choice of open ears is deliberate: unlike over-ear headphones and in-ear headphones, the JBL Junior Free headphones do not isolate the child from the world around them by blocking their ear canal. This aspect of them is a big part of why adults often choose the best open-ear headphones for running, as being more aware of what’s going on around you helps you stay safer – and kids often need help with attention even at the best of times.
And of course that means they can enjoy their music, their app soundtrack or their video while still hearing you and your requests.
The headphones also have features designed to ensure that their wearers do not accidentally damage their hearing.
JBL Junior Free headphones: key features and prices
As we’ve come to expect from child-focused headphones, the JBL Junior Free comes with a volume limiter – JBL calls it Safe Sound – that ensures the headphones don’t exceed the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 85dB.
This is important because sustained exposure to sounds above that level can cause irreversible hearing damage. The WHO says that at 80dB the safe listening time is up to 40 hours a week – but at 90dB it drops to just four.
JBL takes that idea further in these headphones by also allowing you to set time limits for their use as well as your own custom volume limits and to get activity reports so you can see how long the headphones are being used and how loud they are getting.
Junior Free are lightweight with soft silicone materials, controls designed for smaller fingers, multipoint Bluetooth for two simultaneous device connections, and a flexible neckband that keeps them in place and flexible enough to grow as they do so they don’t become useless after a growth spurt.
Battery life is 10 hours with a 10-minute quick charge delivering three hours from a flat, and the headphones are rated IPX4 for splash resistance. And in a nice touch, the packaging can be converted into a phone stand and comes with some decorative stickers to customize the headphones.
The JBL Junior Free will be available in the UK and Europe from this month, November, in a choice of purple, teal or peach and with an RRP of £69.99 / €79.99 (approx $90 / AU$140). US pricing and availability have not been announced yet.
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