Will it be safe to watch solar eclipse from the front camera of phone?

I think we can use the front camera for taking the picture of sun but we should not see towards the sun by any chance during setting the camera in that direction.

One can set the mobile phone on some stand or portable ladder one day ahead to have an idea of its correct position so that the next day one need not to do these things again.

Protective glasses should be invariably worn on that day.

Viewing solar eclipse with nude eyes can surely damage them. When you point magnifying glass towards a paper and it burns it, same thing happens to our eyes as it also has the same system of lens. When we'll watch solar eclipse with our nude eyes then it can surely damage our eyes.
You can't watch the eclipse using the smartphone front camera. If you want to do this then you have to use telephoto lens for your smartphone. If you don't use the telephoto lens then you'll not be able to view the clear image of the solar eclipse.
If you want to view solar eclipse then you can use the following methods:-
1. Use the safe glasses with ISO 12312-2 prints on them.
2. You can also use the official eclipse glasses that are specially designed to block 99.9999 per cent of the sunlight.

It's completely unsafe to use your camera and the binoculars to view the solar eclipse. Not only that it can damage your eyes and also may lead to blackout if exposure is for longer time.

You have the following options.

1. Use the protective filming used by the welders. You can watch the solar eclipse lot better through this medium. If you want you can attach this screen filming to the camera and capture the entire solar eclipse event through this.

2. You can use protective glasses for watching the eclipse. There are some of the glasses being sold since last month in the market. Those are cheap yet good enough to watch the eclipse.

3. If you choose to capture timed images or video through camera then make use of the protective film as I have said earlier. And attach the DSL or Handycam to the laptop or computer. And then see the live feed through processed film feed. This may increase your cost but you can watch through this method with better clarity. There are lot of blog posts explaining this method for DSL based camera.

Alternatively you can also watch through the youtube or the NASA feeds.

Everyone knows that looking directly at sun during solar eclipse is very harmful for eyes but here you are talking about looking at sun through the front camera of your mobile phone. I think its a cool idea because that way you can avoid looking at the sun directly and can save your eyes from radiation. However, some experts even suggest not to come in contact with the light of sun during solar eclipse because at the time of eclipse the amount and density of radiation increases by a big percentage which is not going to do any good to you. So, its better to stay inside.
However, if you want to witness the eclipse then you should take some precautionary steps like wearing full sleeve cloth and dark goggles. And you can continue with the your idea of watching solar eclipse through your front camera because it wont effect your eyes in anyway as you will look at your phone screen and not at the sun.

It is completely safe to watch the solar eclipse from the front camera of mobile. Since the sun is behind you, the UV radiations don't reach your eyes and you stay safe. The mobile electronics are quite rugged to handle the normal UV radiation from the sun so you don't have to worry about the parts of your smartphone getting damaged too. Since today is the day when Solar Eclipse happened in the US, I was listening to the NASA channel on YouTube and even they were appreciating this idea of the younger generation to use the front camera to watch the eclipse and mentioned it that it is completely safe to do so.

Yes, it is safe to use your smartphone in selfie mode to watch the eclipse, as per Jim Todd, who is the director of Space Science Education at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. He told this in an interview in KOIN 6 News. In his own words:
"Selfie is fine. You are not looking at the sun in that fashion and you are taking a snapshot really."
But at the same time, you need to be careful about not to keep looking at the phone continuously throughout the eclipse.
As per the advice of NASA, "You have to be careful that you minimize glimpsing the bright sun with your eyes without the benefit of a proper filter,"
The other issue is, it is recommendable not to zoom in much while looking through the phone in a selfie mode, as the magnified view can affect the eyes as well as mar the sharpness of the snap if you take a few.