I don’t know about your particular car but most steering wheel airbag systems are designed such that the airbag issues from the middle, splitting the vinyl or leather cover horizontally, like the one pictured in the Wikipedia article. The split piece or pieces remain attached to the steering wheel cover while the airbag deploys, which pushes it away and behind the bag. Similarly, it pushes hands and arms to the side, assuming that they’re not being held across the wheel. If you are driving “Buick style” with one arm lazily dangling diagonally across the wheel, you might want to rethink that policy; not only is it dangerous if the airbag deploys–probably breaking your ulna and shoving it into your face–but it also offers very little control or range in a critical situation. Ditto with holding the wheel in the two and ten positions, leading to broken wrists; you’re better off holding the wheel at the three and nine, or even lower, which actually affords better control as well as keeping arms out of the way of the deploying airbag. Similarly, smoking (particularly with a cigarette holder or pipe) while driving is contraindicated for very obvious and lethal reasons.
The problem with airbags injuring or killing children and small passengers is a real one. This comes from the problem that in order to offer maximum cushioning the airbag needs to be aimed such that the head is at the center of the bag which minimizes the offset of the impact. With older round bags this gave somewhere around an 18" target, so children and short adults (<5’3"/160cm)) might be caught by the bottom edge of the expanding bag and absorb the impact obliquely, resulting in a substantial vertical force which can cause significant and potentially lethal injury. Aggrevating this is the fact that short drivers and passengers tend to sit closer to the wheel/dashboard, and either wear and improperly adjusted seatbelt or leave the slash portion of the belt behind them due to discomfort. This places them closer to the airbag and thus receive more of the brunt of the inflation impulse while the bag is expanding. Newer two-stage bags reduce the rate of expansion and resultant instantaneous impulse, and some cars have sensors to disable the passenger airbag if it doesn’t detect an adult mass in the seat.
There are also other problems with airbags as well. Airbags deploy in about one twentieth of a second from a pyrotechnic charge that “burns” a cold gas solid propellant (similar to what ejects ballistic missiles out of a submarine), and deflate almost as quickly. It’s likely that if you are ever in a wreck where one is used, you’ll never see it. It does, however, pose a hazard to rescuers and mechanics, and with the advent of side impact airbags, one has to be careful about cutting into the frame. Such extraction or removal should only be performed by someone who has been trained how to safely.
So, airbags are kind of dangerous to passengers, rescuers, and mechanics. Are they worth it? Although the platitude that “airbags save lives” is generally accepted, it’s uncertain how true this is, at least for frontal impacts. Certainly they provide some measure of protection to a 95th percentile human male in a frontal impact sans any other restraint, but it’s questionable that they offer much benefit over existing restraints. The purpose of the airbag isn’t to shield you from impact, but to prevent you from bashing your head into the dashboard or being impaled on the steering column, which a standard three point seatbelt will do most adequately. Most people probably know someone who claims that an airbag “saved my life”, but in virtually any frontal impact where a bag deploys a seatbelt will have already restrained movement. They provide significantly more benefit in oblique or side impacts where three-point belts can’t effectively restrain motion, but side impact airbags are a relatively recent innovation and are only offered on a select (though expanding) range of vehicles, so the emperical advantage of side impact bags has yet to be seen. And as much as (some) automakers may have complained about the expense of installing airbags, they actually make a hefty profit on replacement bags, which presumably compensates them for the regulatory requirement to install them.
You’re better off just not testing the effectiveness of your airbags at all, but since you have them, you should modify your behavior and habits while behind the wheel to minimize the potential risks should an untoward incident occur.
Stranger