In 2022, a Texas family filed a lawsuit against Apple for damaging their son’s hearing after an Amber Alert went off while he was wearing Airpods. According to Google, the maximum volume of phone headphones is around 105 decibels. The family are claiming that the son now requires hearing aids after his eardrum ruptured.
Is this plausible?
That dB level isn’t crazy high, but rupturing your eardrum typically has more to do with sound pressure level (SPL) which very well might be possible when you’re talking about little speakers as close to the eardrum as possible and creating a partial air lock. That and like other people have said, you don’t need to rupture anything to get some serious tinnitus.