LaunchPad™ Computer Takes Off With an Important Mission: Enrich Childrens Lives and Protect Them From Screen-time Excess
LaunchPad front panel shown with color display indicating time of day, time to screen break, remaining login time, privacy level and operating status. The front panel buttons serve many functions including power, volume, mute, login, logout and various login options.
Guided Exploration provides a curated list of websites organized by topics such as art, business, history, music, travel, science, coding and life skills. Allowing safe exploration of hobbies, interests and even future careers, parents can add up to 8 additional sites.
LaunchPad shown with display, keyboard, mouse and document scanner/webcam (not included). An optimum setup for learning can include two displays, drawing tablet, printer and more.
The LaunchPad computing appliance simplifies a parent’s role in managing their child’s safe and productive use of technology from pre-teen years into adulthood.
LAKE FOREST, CA, UNITED STATES, May 7, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Sentinel Computers LLC, manufacturer of computers for videogame and social media addiction treatment, has today announced the Sentinel LaunchPad™, a new kind of desktop personal computer designed specifically for children to help educate, entertain and enrich their lives. The LaunchPad helps parents easily and effectively guide their child’s safe and productive use of screen-time for learning and exploring without the intrusion of video gaming, mindless video watching or social media swiping.
"Children have a natural curiosity and interest in learning from an early age”, says Dr. Kenneth Woog, clinical psychologist, computer engineer and co-founder of Sentinel Computers. “Boredom is driving children to spend hours and hours on screens for mindless entertainment each day. Today’s devices and application algorithms too often drive children to content that does little to enrich their lives. The LaunchPad can help parents tap into that boredom and instead direct a child towards valuable learning and exploration both on and off-screen. With both advanced parental controls and remote monitoring features, the Sentinel LaunchPad is the first personal computer I consider safe enough to be placed in a child’s bedroom."
The LaunchPad was named to symbolize its role in helping parents successfully launch their children into adulthood. When paired with a low-cost display, keyboard, mouse and webcam/document camera, it serves as a replacement for computers, tablets, smart TVs and gaming consoles in the home. It also helps parents delay the introduction of smartphones to children by allowing limited access to social media in a highly supervised manner. The LaunchPad makes it easy to manage a child’s use of screen-time in three distinct areas of life: Education, Exploration and Entertainment. Each of these areas is managed by operating modes with separate limit settings and parental control options that define when and how the system can be used.
Education modes provide a familiar computer desktop for researching, writing and learning, an online videoconferencing environment as well as a guided instruction mode for online course study without the distraction of watching videos, playing games or chatting with friends. Programmable screen and meditation breaks are available to help improve productivity, focus and study habits.
Exploration modes allow a child to access online content curated by the upcoming Sentinel Parent Advisory Council featuring such topics as art, history, music, sports, travel, science, technology, design and computer programming. While off screen exploration and play time for children is important, the LaunchPad allows parents to set time aside for life enriching activities online as an alternative to mindless entertainment.
Entertainment modes allow age-appropriate access to video gaming, videos, social media and major streaming services. Video gaming options include access to hundreds of web based games (including retro games), Amazon Luna Cloud Gaming (Prime Membership or Luna subscription required) as well as Windows, Steam and PlayStation gaming when a Windows gaming PC or Sony PlayStation console are located in the home. Social Media access is managed with separate time use limits and site restrictions by age and other parental preferences. A Gaming Timer feature helps parents synchronize entertainment time on other devices (i.e. Nintendo® Switch, Android Tablet) with the LaunchPad.
Entertainment time should serve as a reward for meeting important responsibilities each day. The LaunchPad can be set to require, through a simple automated process, parental approval each day before any Entertainment mode can be accessed. A schoolwork logging system and academic and behavioral bonus system (Advanced Feature Subscription) encourages students to have a greater awareness of school assignments and required study time and helps parents monitor and reward their child for meeting academic and behavioral goals.
Teaching children how to successfully manage their screen time is now another critical responsibility of parenting. Unlike typical screen devices used by children today, the LaunchPad was specifically designed to prevent overuse, dependency and other forms of harm to children. It does this through advanced, multi-layered, parental controls requiring only the child's age to automatically set appropriate limits (which parents can override). Real-time monitoring and communication features not only allows parents to see their child’s screen but allows them to communicate to their child, and if necessary, remove the child from unwanted content from anywhere in the world. Entertainment mode features such as GamePlay+ (automatic time limit extensions) and Taper Down (automated daily time limit reductions) help parents teach their children screen-time management and emotional regulation skills.
The LaunchPad includes a rich set of applications and capabilities preinstalled and the Linux Operating System prioritizes simplicity, reliability and security. It includes the Google Chromium (Chrome) web browser, LibreOffice Suite compatible with Microsoft Office along with tools for graphics design, image and video editing, software development and more. The LaunchPad supports up to 7 users and can be connected to a television in the family room or computer display(s) in a child’s bedroom. The hardware is based on a 2 GHz, quad-core, 64 bit ARM processor with 4GB RAM and 128GB of storage. Connectivity includes dual HDMI ports, audio, Gigabit Ethernet and 2 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3.0 ports. The ultra-low power, 5.4 ounce computer also contains a front panel color status/control screen. The Sentinel LaunchPad is available and on sale now at Sentinel-Computers.com for $399.95 ($100 off MSRP), which includes WIFI Repeater, the first year of the Advanced Feature Subscription ($99) and a 60 day money back guarantee.
About Sentinel Computers
Dr. Kenneth Woog and son Timothy Woog founded Sentinel Gaming Systems in 2015 to produce custom Windows® gaming PCs in support of the videogame addiction treatment protocol used at the Computer Addiction Treatment Program in Southern California. The Pro Series are high-end gaming computers with top of the line Intel CPUs and NVidia discrete graphics cards. The Mini Series are smaller systems intended for casual gamers with AMD APUs with integrated graphics. With the LaunchPad, Sentinel Computers is now ushering in a new generation of personal computers designed to help keep children safe and productive online in the home as their first computer. It can also work with an existing gaming computer or console for screen addiction treatment.
Kenneth M. Woog
Sentinel Computers, LLC
+1 877-401-1944 ext. 55
email us here
Distribution channels: Consumer Goods, Culture, Society & Lifestyle, Education, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals Industry, Technology
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Submit your press release