iPod Hack

My Niece is blasting her ears

[aaronjf]

OK, so my Brother posted on the iPod chat and got a bunch of teenage knuckle heads trying to tell him how to parent instead of the answer. I am hoping some of my mature peers that can understand the delima will have an answer.

What we are looking for is a hack to the operating system of the iPod to lower the Maximum volume on my 12 year old Nieces iPod. My brother has tried everything and is turning to this as a last resort. The kid, as most of us as kids did with Walkman, is ruining her hearing. Any one have this or know how to write it?

[moltar]

You can get a pair of headphones with adjustable volume control right on them and glue the volume control at needed position.

[aaronjf]

That is pretty funny. But, he is looking for something a little less bypassable.

[bakedjake]

[espen.se...]

Will let you adjust volume of MP3 files.

[aaronjf]

Yeah, you can do that through iTunes also. However that does not help if she loads a CD herself.

[drbrain]

Err....

He won't have a problem with her playing it too loud if she doesn't have an iPod, now would he?

I'm sure that he can load it up with all kinds of his favorite music if she won't *ahem* listen...

[Josk]

[members.brabant.chello.nl...]

Describe volume control approaches. The European Ipods are limited to 100Db. Perhaps you should buy one?

[appleg5ive]

There is an application called iPodVolumeBooster, I don't know, but this may allow you to lower the volume as well.

[figment88]

I generally take something away from a child if they misuse it.

[mivox]

I generally take something away from a child if they misuse it.

That would be the obvious answer, IMO. ;) But, if that's not an option? (You can't necessarily take something away from a niece...)

[yosemite]

Aren't there a multitude of sites on the Internet that describe exactly how devastating loud music is to ones' hearing? Can she not be reasoned with, and told that she'll have seriously compromised hearing before she's 30? Is she truly so stubborn that she'll ruin her hearing like that, even after seeing all sorts of official medical documentation and serious-sounding sites that clearly state what is going to happen to her?

If she seems determined to ruin her hearing, all your brother can do is try his best to stop her, but also tell her that if she insists on playing music too loud anyway, he will remind her later of what she did, and how she knowingly and willingly did it, and how she has no reason to feel sorry for herself when she eventually has to use closed-captioning to watch movies or TV because she's messed up her hearing so bad. (I know of at least one person who has to do this already, becaue they played music too loud. Seriously.)

[aaronjf]

Yeah, reasoning with a teenager... Like reasoning with an Alligator. I myself told him just to take it from her since she can't follow the rules. He insists on letting her keep it since it was a reward for straight As in school (a deal they made).

[mivox]

Well, hopefully next time he'll stipulate, "But only if you use it appropriately," regardless of what the reward is.

If she's unwilling to listen, and he's unwilling to put his foot down, and there's no handy hack available, there doesn't seem to be much to do about it.

[yosemite]

Tell him to tell her that she won't be getting A's in the future—she'll be too deaf to hear what the teachers say.

Well, I guess he's made his choice, then. If the hack doesn't work, she gets to ruin her hearing. I just hope he tells her that in no uncertain terms that she is NOT to come back to him in 5, 10, 15 years and say, "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you stop me?" She is not to complain or whine or try to feel sorry for herself when her hearing gets worse and worse.

I had a friend (kind of) do that. I was always telling everyone in high school that if they played their music too loud, they'd have hearing problems. Of course they all blew me off. Years later, one of my friends had hearing trouble but had the audacity to say that "nobody told her" what the loud music would do. You could hear my guffaws a mile away . . .

(Sorry, I tend to get a little wound up about this subject. It's something so avoidable. And the consequences of not paying attention to the warnings about loud music are permanent. Like, for the rest of your life. It makes me very sad.)

[258cib]

I did some work on a teen communications program regarding smoking. There is some very solid research on how to talk to young people who are harming themselves in behaviors where they are striving to be socially accepted and fit it to what is going on. Smoking is one, blasting your hearing with rock music is another.

Oddly, the most frank and readable stuff on this is the Philip Morris brochure on talking to your teens. In a nutshell--don't stop saying what you want to say, enforce the rules and explain (CALMLY, DAMNIT!) why you are concerned.