Parents allege son suffered ‘permanent hearing loss’ from alert on AirPods

The parents of a Texas child are suing Apple after they say an Amber Alert that played while the child was wearing AirPods damaged his ear. 

Carlos Gordoa and Ariani Reyes, the parents of the boy identified as “B.G.,” said their child was watching Netflix on his iPhone with AirPods connected at a “low volume” when the Amber Alert went off, according to their legal complaint. 

The volume of the alert “tore apart B.G.’s ear drum, damaged his cochlea, and caused significant injuries to B.G’s hearing,” court documents alleged.

The complaint added that the boy “suffered sudden and permanent hearing loss in his right ear” in addition to other injuries like dizziness, vertigo, nausea and tinnitus.

The parents accused Apple of gross negligence and fraud, saying the AirPods were defective to play alerts at such “ear shattering sound levels.”

“The AirPods do not automatically reduce, control, limit, or increment notification or alert volumes to a safe level that causes them to emit,” the complaint claims.

“This boy’s life has been severely altered because Apple did not provide a warning about the volume levels of its AirPods, leading to his permanent hearing loss,” Tej Paranjpe, an attorney for the family, said in a statement to Reuters.

The Hill has reached out to Apple for comment.