Kids love smartphones and tablets — especially if they’re loaded with games and videos. But it’s thought spending too much time too close to a screen can cause computer vision syndrome, abd even lasting damage to young eyes.

Samsung wants to prevent this with a new Android app called Safety Screen, which displays a large popup that gets in the way of the content whenever your child moves their device too close to their face.

“Digital devices are an easy — and often welcome — way for parents to distract their children, but it’s important for adults to limit overexposure,” according to The Vision Council. One way to do this is to make sure children don’t sit too close to screens for long periods of time.

It’s difficult to enforce this rule — even if you have time to sit right next to your child while they use their tablet, and you probably don’t — so Samsung wants to help. Its new Safety Screen app uses facial recognition to prevent kids from getting too close to smart devices.

It runs in the background and automatically calculates the optimal distance between your child and their device. If they put their face too close to the screen, a large popup blocks whatever they’re going and tells them to “move back!” It then disappears when they pull away.

https://youtu.be/1AC3_J4N6kw

This means that even without constant supervision, you can be sure your child’s eyes aren’t too close to the screen while they’re playing on a smartphone or tablet. Over time, it should also encourage them to keep their distance without the need for an annoying popup.

And unlike most Samsung apps, Safety Screen is compatible with almost all Android-powered devices running KitKat or later. You can download it now from the Play Store by following the link below.

• ViaSamMobile
• Google Play StoreSamsung Safety Screen