ICT standards for safe listening

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Overview

• ​​O​ver a billion young people worldwide are at risk of developing hearing loss due to the unsafe use of personal audio devices and exposure to damaging levels of sound in noisy entertainment venues. The WHO "Make Listening Safe" Initiative draws attention to the rising problem of sound-induced hearing loss due to recreational exposure to loud sounds.
• WHO has partnered with ITU to bring together governments, health professionals, academia and the industry to discuss how ICTs can help make listening safe. Expected outcomes include policy briefs, international standards and awareness campaigns to ensure that people of al​l ages can enjoy music, games, movies and live events without jeopardizing their hearing.​
  
• ITU-T Q28/16, in collaboration with WHO and other experts, leads the development of technical standards for devices (such as mobile phones) that would allow for safe listening. When implemented, these standards will allow controlling exposure to loud sounds through personal audio systems and will provide information that enable users to make safe listening choices.​​
• The first of such standards is ITU-T H.870​ "Guidelines for safe listening devices/systems", was approved in August 2018 and then in March 2022 (2nd edition). It is complemented by the conformance testing specification in HSTP.CONF-H870.​​​​
  
• To ensure appropriate implementation of this standard, WHO, ITU-T and ITU-D’s Digital Inclusion ​Programme developed a Toolkit for Safe Listening Devices and Systems. The toolkit provides guidelines for all stakeholders - including governments, the private sector and the civil society - to ensure that the standard is implemented in practice through public policies and industry adoption, and allows responsible enjoyment of audiovisual content and avoiding preventable sound-induced hearing loss.
  
• The initial standard will soon be complemented by the Technical Paper on Safe Listening in Venues and by a new ITU/WHO standard on safe listening for video gaming and esports contexts.​