When the laser hits your eye, you will automatically turn it off to protect it. Below about 50mW of high power laser pointer power, this reflection speed is fast enough that the energy absorbed by the eye will not cause permanent damage. The premise is that the light is visible.
Infrared lasers will not trigger this reflection, and you may be blind. Diode pumped solid-state lasers-Wikipedia equipment, such as 532nm (but not 520nm) green lasers, uses 808nm infrared pump lasers to excite Nd-YAG crystals. The power of the pump laser is much higher than the light output, usually more than one watt. A large part of the pump laser leaves the device with the green light. This is what really burns, not a green light. And it can be dangerous!
The possibility of complete blindness is extremely small, but there may be some bad pixels on your retina. I stared at the >200mW green green laser through the interference filter for a few seconds. What I don’t know is that in addition to its normal passband, it also allows most of the infrared light to pass through. My eyes are burned. Not serious, I can see it clearly, but in some cases, the burnt pattern is visible.
Another problem is the blue-violet laser (405nm). This wavelength, even if it is not too strong, has the ability to destroy organic matter and cause tissue damage. There are very high power blue lasers available. Maybe they are the most dangerous.
The laser pointer is a great exercise, and I don’t want to stop using it altogether. My solution is to throw a toy on the floor (a mouse or aluminum foil ball works well) and stop the blue laser pointer on the toy every once in a while. It didn’t take long for them to become interested in this new version of the game. They will be satisfied by grasping something tangible, something they can feel. The cycle proceeds as it should. Their instincts have not failed them. There is no sense of frustration, and their prey motivation is fully invested.