There’s a war of politeness being fought at dinner tables around the world, and it’s all about mobile devices. Specifically people – adults too, not just children – fiddling with their smartphones when they should be eating and talking.

Is a new Android app called DinnerTime the answer to parents frustrated that their sparkling family discussions appear to be less interesting than Angry Birds? Well, that depends on your approach to parenting.

Here’s how it works: you install the app on a child’s Android smartphone or tablet, and control it from your own device – which has to be Android for now, although iPhone is coming soon. And by control, we mean ‘disable the device temporarily’.

There are several settings. Dinner Time pauses any activity for 30 minutes, one hour or two hours. Take a Break lets you set any pause time up to 24 hours. And Bed Time lets you set a time range overnight when the device will be out of action – although they can still use it as an alarm clock.

“During these ‘break’ times the child’s ability to use their device - everything from apps to the Internet to texting and calling friends - is temporarily disabled, only incoming calls are allowed while you spend quality time together,” explains the app’s Google Play store listing.

(Yes, we can foresee the same conversations when an incoming call is received: “Yeah, they’ve locked my device. It’s SO UNFAIR. It won’t work until I’ve finished. I HATE THEM.”)

“Kids can even see the countdown of how much time remains before they are able to access their device again, without any distractions from schoolwork, spending time with the family, or even getting to bed on time,” continues the blurb.

DinnerTime is a free download for Android from the Google Play store. However, there’s a separate DinnerTime Plus app which includes more features, including the ability to choose which apps can be used when the device is locked, and monitoring features to see what your child has been doing. Pay $1.99 via in-app purchase, and you can link it to up to five children’s devices.

I’m a little unsure about all this. Or, at least, I’m the kind of sandal-wearing lentil-chewing liberal parent that hopes I’ll be able to persuade my children to set their devices aside when necessary, rather than having to install locking software to force them.

Still, if you’ve given up on the persuasion approach, DinnerTime may be worth a look.