One of the things you learn early on in parenting is that a young child has no concept of privacy, neither yours, anyone else’s or even his own.

It’s a mild annoyance when measured against what soon follows.

As a child moves into adolescence (defined as children ages 10 to 19), the privacy pendulum takes a dramatic swing.

All of us have heard the parent’s lament: “When she was little, she told me everything, wanted to hang out with me all the time. We were so close. Now? She doesn’t ever share anything, doesn’t want to hang out with me, rolls her eyes at everything I say. What happened?”

It goes beyond a void in communication. Somewhere in adolescence, a child acquires his own views, perspectives  and opinions, some of which may be contrary to those of mom and dad. It can create distance in the parent/child relationship.

In most cases, it gets better as they emerge into young adults.

Mark Twain put it this way:

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

Adolescence provides some humorous moments, but it can also have grave consequences.

With the proliferation of social media and smartphone technology, there has probably never been a more dangerous time to be an adolescent. Words like cyberbullying, catfishing, sexting, revenge porn and, more recently, sextortion, are used to describe these dangers. The consequences can be painful, even deadly.

A person suffering from cyberbullying, in all of its manifestations, is almost twice as likely to commit suicide than those who aren’t, according to Stopbullying.gov, which also reports that self-harming behavior is common among victims as a method of coping with their suffering.

That is the painful reality that Brian Montgomery and his family have lived out every day since December, when Montgomery’s 16-year-old son, Walker, took his own life after being targeted in a sextortion scheme.

Brian Montgomery went on Fox News Monday to tell his family’s story.

Walker Montgomery was a typical, well-adjusted kid. He loved playing football for Starkville Academy and loved to be outdoors. He had friends and interests, was a good student and had no discipline problems at home or school. There were, in fact, no warning signs at all.

That changed with a chance encounter on Instagram. Someone posing as an attractive teenage girl struck up a conversation with Walker and soon convinced him to allow himself to open a video chat of him performing a sex act. Soon thereafter, Walker was contacted and told the video chat had been recorded and that if he didn’t pay them $1,000, they would release the video to the public.

An FBI investigation revealed that the pressure Walker was under was unbearable with Walker finally telling the perpetrators, “I’m going to kill myself.” They responded, “Go ahead, because you’re already dead.”

Walker took his life soon after the exchange. It was clear in his interview that Brian Walker bears the misplaced guilt common to all parents facing the unexpected loss of a child: “Couldn’t we have done something to prevent this?”

Someday, the Montgomerys will understand they were the victims and bear no responsibility for this tragedy.

The reality is that we live in a time in which parents have to have frank conversations with their children about sharing sexually-explicit material with anyone.

Thanks to Brian Montgomery’s courage and compassion in telling his family’s story, we know how dangerous cell phones can be and better understand the frank conversations we need to be having with our kids.

In his final tortured hours, we know that Walker descended into hopelessness. He could see no way out. As adults we know his situation was far from hopeless.

That’s the cruel irony: Children are most vulnerable in the years they are likely to be the least communicative with their parents.

It’s obvious that Walker was surrounded by a loving family, which further reinforces the fact that we can’t have reassuring conversations enough.

Kids need to know that no matter their situation, there is a solution and that solution begins with communication, preferably with their parents, but if not, with an adult they can trust – a teacher, a guidance counselor, a pastor, a police officer.

It is the kind of communication that can save a child’s life.

Does your child, your grandchild know this?

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.