The Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants ride in rear-facing safety seats until they are at least 20 pounds and 1 year old. When used properly, these seats reduce the risk of neck injury to infants. Most children under 10 should use a booster seat to ride safely. Currently air bags inflate at speeds of up to 200 mph. This blast of energy can severely hurt or kill passengers who are too close to the air bag.
Children are more likely than adults to be too close to an air bag when it deploys.
Until passenger vehicles are equipped with air bags that are safe and effective for children, those who are 12 years old and younger should not ride in a front passenger seat that is equipped with an air bag. 11 Air bag-related injuries that have occurred to children would have been prevented if the children had been riding in the back seat. Regardless of whether the vehicle has an air bag, the rear seat is the safest seating position. Infants in rear-facing child safety seats should never ride in the front seat of a vehicle equipped with a passenger air bag. Infants in rear-facing child safety seats must always ride in the back seat facing the rear of the car.