Raising children in a digital world is one seminar that Dr. Deborah MacNamara says is most often requested of her. The clinical counsellor says parents are wondering what is a good age to get their kids a cell phone or allow them to set up a social media account. That uncertainty was addressed during an information night in Carman Tuesday hosted by the Neufeld Institute, an online professional development organization.

"Parents today are trying to raise children when they are, as the term is coined, digital immigrants, and their children are the true digital natives," says Dr. MacNamara. She adds the question is, how are parents going to raise their children now that they have digital devices?

"I think parents just feel, they're not always sure how to use the technology themselves and I think they're very concerned about what lies waiting in the digital world for their kids."

Dr. MacNamara says a large part of the solution is for parents to learn how to lead their children into the digital age instead of just following them there, and to see themselves as the ones to make decisions in this regard.

"We don't have a lot of cultural norms around this yet, we don't have tonnes of understanding, and so the only thing that's really serving to be the barrier here is the parent."

She adds parents also need to think along the lines of developmental readiness. "When is it that my child will be ready for these different devices? What would be some of the signs that I would look for? What's important for their overall development?"

Dr. MacNamara says parents also need to understand what is driving their children to use these devices and then set rules or restrictions accordingly, noting a three year old doesn't need an electronic device but a thirteen year old might have access.

She explains it's easier to get everyone in the home on the same page before there is an incident, noting it comes back to good structure and routine.

"When you're in the middle of trying to get a child off a device emotions get high, children get very resistant and your relationship can really take a hit. Trying to work ahead of the problem is really important."

Overall, Dr. MacNamara hopes parents understand that they are the ones to lead their children into the digital world, to introduce the tools when they are ready, to notice when their child is having challenges and to use their relationship to do all of this.

"What I see is that the whole conversation has turned to be about the technology and it's not, it's about the relationship between the parent and the child."