The best headphones for kids

A great option at around the same price as the JLab rivals above, this Belkin pair offers a better battery life of 30 hours and is water-resistant to survive accidental drops and mishandling. We found these comfy on test, although the headband isn’t quite as cushioned as the one on the JLab pair.

We love the colour range here too (it would be easy to match it to an Amazon Fire tablet for kids in the same shade), and it’s worth noting that there’s a wired variant at a low £15 price. We tried out the wireless one and can report that it sounds decent and the earcups are soft and won’t cause discomfort.

You may already know how useful owning a pair of noise-cancelling Bose over-ear headphones or Sony cans is for yourself. The best noise-cancelling headphones are invaluable on flights and in loud environments, and they help you to listen in peace without cranking up the volume.

Kids can experience the same benefits with the iClever BTH20, a comfortable pair of active noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones aimed at kids. These have two levels of cancellation, one lower and one higher, and an automatic 85-decibel volume limit. You can also leave the noise-cancelling off altogether.

They’re easy to use and comfortable to wear with soft and well-cushioned ear pads, and we like how they fold down for travel. They only come with a soft travel pouch rather than a proper case, though.

They have simple controls for playback, volume and noise control, and they’re easy to recharge via USB-C. When it comes to battery life, you’re getting 35 hours of playtime with ANC on and up to 60 hours with it off. They’re well-rounded overall, and an excellent value option if you need kids' headphones for travel.

If you’re buying headphones for older kids, they might like the idea of an AirPods alternative, and we got on well with the child-friendly Belkin Nano earbuds in our tests. We must stress that we’d only pick this for older children, with Belkin also saying that they’re only for kids older than seven.

For younger kids, the parts involved here are too small and too easily lost or swallowed. If you’re shopping for the right age range, though, these could be perfect. The sound is solid, the wireless connection is straightforward and there’s a lot of battery life to go with the fully wireless freedom. And, of course, they have the same maximum 85db volume limit as the others on this list.

If you like the sound of the wired headphones above but want to connect them to devices that don’t have a headphone port, consider wireless Bluetooth headphones that can be more convenient and will allow kids to wander around away from their phone or tablet without worrying about a dangling cord.

These are also great for devices like a Kindle for Kids, which unfortunately doesn’t have a headphone jack for audiobooks. We like the JBuddies Studio for all the same reasons as their wired counterpart – they’re great for sharing as you can connect two together with a wire, and they have a lengthy 24 hours of battery life. If that runs out, they can be used with the included cable too. It may be worth investing in adapters like this one for a headphone jack to USB-C or this for a headphone port to Lightning for Apple devices.

Should kids really have to learn about the ins and outs of Bluetooth connectivity? Or should we expect them to worry about battery life? For younger children, we don’t think so, and that’s why this wired pair is one of our top recommendations.

These child-friendly headphones deliver comfort and convenience while also limiting volume automatically. We like the tangle-free fabric cable (which has a mic and a one-button play/pause remote) and the cushioned earcups and headband are softer than the others on our list.

Most of the kids’ headphones out there don’t also count as high-quality, especially in the sense that they’re often made from cheaper materials and designed to be mistreated. The Puro BT2200 Plus is the way to go if you want something more premium for an older child or one less prone to mishaps! What really sets these apart is that nothing about them feels “childish” at all.

These deliver when it comes to audio quality so they’re great for kids who love their music and they give wearers a high level of comfort for a long time. They also fit well, especially as you can swap between an on-ear or over-ear design, and once in the over-ear mode you’ll find the soft vegan leather cushions passively block out a lot of distractions.

We like that they come with all the accessories you could need including extra cables for a wired mode, a cable for sharing audio in a daisy chain and one for recharging. And that hard shell case makes them ideal for travel.

While we found them a little louder than some, in our tests we found they kept volume levels below 92db when we pushed them to the maximum, and typically at around 84db. Aside from the high price, there are no real downsides to these, and the build quality makes them worth the extra money.

Much like the other Puro model on our list, the JuniorJam Plus has a notably more premium design and higher price than a lot of the other kids’ headphones on the market. Even so, at £69 and available in a range of fun colours (black, blue, green, pink, purple and teal), we think these make a great gift or upgrade from an existing pair of on-ear cans for little ones. They’ve got a comfortable adjustable headband and reliable clicky button controls, including a good slider for on and off. If they forget to turn them off, they’ll power down after 10 minutes of inactivity too.

The best news is that they both sound high-end with 40mm dynamic drivers and they have an automatic 85-decibel volume limit that can’t be overridden at all. It’s also a limit that applies whether they’re in use in the wireless mode or are connected to a device with a wire, making these a versatile option.

At this price, which is higher than usual for the category, we wouldn’t have minded seeing a proper travel case over a drawstring pouch, but some headphones for kids don’t come with either. These still fold down nicely into the case, and the biggest benefits overall are the reliable volume limit and the well-rounded rich sound signature. Much like the Puro Sound Labs BT2200 Plus, these are headphones that put the audio quality and safe listening features at the forefront, and they’re some of the best we’ve tested.

For younger kids, this over-ear pair offers a comfy fit and won’t get tiring to wear while listening to music or watching a few episodes of Paw Patrol on Amazon Kids Plus. They have a fairly basic design, but we like how affordable they are and how they offer the ability to connect multiple pairs together with a wired connection. We can see this being perfect for keeping two or more kids occupied with a show or an audiobook in the car for a long journey.

The volume limiting is effective and doesn’t require any fussy controls to activate – there’s a little switch on the cable to flip between a limit of 94db or 85db, keeping noises at a safe level. The cable is also tangle-free, which we appreciate. The only real downside is that these don’t feel quite as sturdy as some rivals, so we could see them breaking if they get bashed around a lot.

There’s a lot to like about the Skullcandy Grom wireless over-ear headphones for kids. Firstly, the fit around the wearer’s ears is comfortable and ensures effective passive isolation from the outside world. It’s not active noise-cancelling, but these are better than most of the on-ear models for kids we’ve seen.

They’ve also got a big battery life, bigger than every other child-focused pair that we’ve tried, they sound fun and engaging for pop music, the customisable headband is an appreciated feature and the controls feel easy to use. The entire outside of the left cup can be clicked for play and pause control, they have a volume dial, and a simple on/off button.

However, despite having the most battery life, they fall just short of us being able to recommend them as the best for most kids for battery life. That’s because, while they have an automatic 85-decibel volume limit, it’s too easy for kids to override it with an extra adjustment on the built-in volume wheel. Skullcandy says this click on the wheel is “easy for adults and not-so-easy for kids” but we’d disagree. It takes only a light extra push.

While this isn’t as much of a dealbreaker as certain models we’ve tried that required you to have an app for the volume limit (they didn’t make it into this list), we consider it a notable downside on these otherwise impressive cans. Stick to older kids with these – they have great battery, solid comfort, reliable control and a slightly bass-boosted sound that’ll work well for most music and TV shows.