Can teenagers be scared — or perhaps scarred — into sun-smart behaviour?

That was the question asked by dermatologists after they developed an app which alters an image of a person’s face based on their skin type and various levels of UV exposure over a period of 5-25 years.

Called Sunface, it was used by medical students when visiting 52 classrooms in Brazilian secondary schools to discuss melanoma prevention with some 1600 students.

The photo-aged selfies of 734 of those pupils were projected onto a screen for the entire class to see — saggy skin, wrinkles, potential malignant skin lesions and all.