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3-D and Your Eyes

Ever felt like you had a headache after watching a 3-D movie? Now French officials are warning that viewing 3-D content could actually be bad for your eyes if you're 13 years old or younger.

The Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses) is recommending that kids about this age keep their 3-D viewing to moderate levels. Kids younger than six shouldn’t watch 3-D content at all, the agency says.

The potential health concerns are sure to get increased attention as more and more 3-D products are released, taking the eye-popping effects out of the theater and into our homes through video game consoles, TVs, and computer screens.

The problem stems from how our eyes and brains deal with a three-dimensional effect on a screen. We must look at images in two different places at once to visualize the effect as one picture. The process could cause vision problems, especially for little kids whose eyes are still actively developing, Anses said in a statement.

The warnings aren’t completely new, the BBC reports. Nintendo’s 3-D video game console, released in 2010, comes with a warning for kids under six