Thumbs up to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for the work it does to educate parents in addition to investigating and arresting predators.

Tom Grella of the Portsmouth Police Department is the commander of ICAC. He and Matt Fleming, a task force member from the Bedford Police Department, gave a presentation in Stratham last week that shocked many parents in attendance.

Parents may never see what their kids post or are exposed to on mobile apps such as Snapchat and Instagram. Fleming cited Tumblr and Omegle as sites where many predators connect with kids, too. Distribution and trading of sexual images, sextortion and cyber bullying, solicitation or child sex trafficking, and sexual assault and abduction are all risks.

Parents were told kids often send explicit photos to friends or get tricked into sending them to predators and they could end up online forever. In 2015, a 15-year-old Exeter High School student was arrested on a felony charge alleging he sold explicit photos of underage female students.

The officers also told parents the suspects are often regular members of the community. “Our suspects aren’t who you think they are,” said Fleming. “Our suspects are moms and dads. Our suspects are teachers and doctors and cops and firefighters and military people, lawyers, two pizza guys a couple years ago in Goffstown. We grab people who you live next door to.”

Find information at icactaskforce.org and netsmartz.org.

****

Thumbs up to Christine Jameson, a young widow and mother, for her bravery and selflessness in testifying before the New Hampshire Senate Finance Committee this week.

Jameson's husband Kyle, a Hampton firefighter, died of cancer at age 33 in 2016. She spoke in support of a bill, sponsored by state Sen. Dan Innis, R-New Castle, that would fund the state’s presumptive cancer law through a surcharge on Granite State insurance policies. State law says cancer is presumed to be a work-related illness for firefighters under certain conditions, but the state Constitution prohibits unfunded mandates on municipalities by the state without a funding mechanism. The bill would add an insurance surcharge in the state that would cost about $4 per policy, Innis said.

Jameson spoke emotionally about the financial hardship she and her 2-year-old son Liam face, even though the bill will not help her if it passes. It would not be retroactive. Still, she spoke in an effort to help families in the future who face her situation.

“Every morning when I wake up, I’m faced with the reality that my partner and the love of my life is never coming back, and that these emotional and financial challenges are for me to face without him,” she said.

****

Thumbs down to a New Hampshire bill that would drop the state's drinking age from 21 to 20.

It would invite 20-year-olds into the state to buy alcohol for younger drinkers. It would likely make it even easier for New Hampshire teens to get alcohol, too. Those factors go hand in hand with increasing risky behavior among young people. It's a dangerous idea. In addition, the state would lose money as the federal government requires a 21 legal drinking age to receive funding for highway repairs and transportation projects.

The state Department of Safety opposed the bill, along with police chiefs and New Futures, a youth advocacy group, making a strong case to kill this legislation.