Jim Gamble is not a hero - by Andrew Murray (no, not that one) of 'IT Lawyer'

Here is an article that's been spotted by 'Annabel' on MM which is very much worth a read.

This independent thinker clearly does not buy the media hype and hero-wordhsip of Jim Gamble:

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The CEOP Jim Gamble Affair
The IT Lawyer

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Andrew Murray
Wednesday, 6 October 2010

I realise I am going to be on very unsteady ground here but I'm usually a straight down the middle guy who doesn't rock the boat so I'm going out on a limb with a slightly controversial piece here.

In the few days since Jim Gamble announced his resignation from his role as Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and On-Line Protection Centre (CEOP) he has been accorded almost universal adulation by the British media and has been followed out of the door by three other senior executives at CEOP. To believe the media Mr. Gamble was an irreplaceable hero who single-handedly protected our children from online harm. Here are a selection of stories from the last 48 hours.

"Top Abuse Boss Quitting Puts Kids in Danger" says The Sun; "Resignation A Sad Day" says BBC News; "Victim's Group Slams Home Secretary" says the Daily Mail and in this weeks most tabloid friendly collision of stories "Kate and Gerry McCann 'Very Upset' at Resignation" says the Daily Mail natch.

Now I'm not denying Jim Gamble was/is a man with a mission and a very laudable one at that. His aim is to prevent the abuse of children. This is something which is unarguable and inalienable. I though have met Mr. Gamble on more than one occasion (and more than two for the wags at the back) and there was something very undesirable about his methods and his message.

In a cry that echoed back to the radical feminist cry "All Men are Rapists" Mr. Gamble in public speeches seemed to suggest that all men were paedophiles. The role of CEOP was to protect children at all costs from these almost primeval urges. He also seemed to be suggesting that only CEOP could fulfil this role in the UK. The view of many in industry and the legal profession is he was an empire builder who had a particularly narrow and skewed view of society and in particular the relationship between adults and children. I still have a marginal note I made at one of his speeches where I noted down "I am not a paedophile and I resent the implication I am because I happen to be a man."

I wasn't the only one less than happy with his methods. As the BBC profile of him (linked above) notes:

Gamble began to gain his reputation as the UK's foremost hunter of paedophiles, heading up Operation Ore, the UK's largest ever police investigation into who was viewing internet child abuse images.The operation identified over 7,000 suspects and led to more than 2,000 convictions but it proved highly controversial. There were criticisms that the net was hauling in too many innocent people and that some of those convicted had not viewed images of child abuse at all but were actually victims of identity theft.

The specialist press were even more direct. In January 2009 ISPs attacked his plans to pass on RIPA costs to ISPs (The Register) while in May 2007 a PCPro investigation revealed the flaws in Operation Ore in full. This is why I'm glad to see that The Register has yesterday put its head above the parapet to write the story 'Internet Firms Welcome CEOP Chief's Exit'.

I agree with the comment that this offers a clean slate. The protection of children is one of the most sacred responsibilities of any society. The UK takes it particularly seriously and UK ISPs working with CEOP and local and national police forces have gone a long way to eradicating its production and distribution via the internet in the UK. It is the responsibly of us all to take things forward. Jim Gamble should be thanked for his work to date but we need to move forward in a more streamlined and co-operative form of regulation within this area. My two cents is that Jim Gamble was not the right personality to work with ISPs on the next stage - his form of management was well suited to the Wild West of the internet between 1995-2005. It is not as well suited to the modern internet.

Work of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre

07 October 2010

Work of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre
Tuesday 12 October 2010 at 12.30 p.m.
Committee Room 15, House of Commons
Purpose of session

This is one of the Committee’s topical evidence sessions. It is an opportunity to discuss the work of CEOP with its Chief Executive, Jim Gamble, and in particular to explore the concerns about the future of this agency that have led Mr Gamble to resign from his post.

Rt. Hon Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the Committee, said:

“We have long been aware of the magnificent specialised work done by CEOP in protecting children from sexual exploitation, making the internet a safer environment for children, combating child trafficking, and tracking down missing paedophiles. We are alarmed that Mr Gamble considers that the proposed merger of CEOP into the National Crime Agency would place this work in jeopardy, and we are therefore taking an early opportunity to explore with him the nature of his concerns.”

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''We have long been aware of the magnificent specialised work done by CEOP in protecting children from sexual exploitation, making the internet a safer environment for children, combating child trafficking, and tracking down missing paedophiles. We are alarmed that Mr Gamble considers that the proposed merger of CEOP into the National Crime Agency would place this work in jeopardy, and we are therefore taking an early opportunity to explore with him the nature of his concerns.

@ Vaz

Shut up Vaz. You sound like you are reading from the same script as the rest of them.

Who phrased this emotive piece of drivel for you?

On BBC1 Wales is Mark Williams Thomas and a horrifying programme about online paedophiles. It showed a map of North Wales and villages where online paedophiles are suspected.
Did anyone else see it?
What exactly does MWT do? Is he pitching for Gambles job?

It would seem Jim Gamble is not working his 4 months notice, and is leaving next month.......................



Child online safety chief Jim Gamble to leave next month

One of the UK's most influential child online safety advocates, Jim Gamble, is to leave his role as chief executive next month, the Guardian has learnt - four months earlier than expected.Head of the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, Gamble has been a controversial and combative figure, admired by activists but a source of frustration for those in the online industry.

Theresa May and Jim Gamble when she visited the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in August. The two have fallen out over her plans to merge the centre into a National Crime Agency. Illustration: Adrian Brooks/Imagewise Ceop has already begun advertising for his replacement, who will undertake the position on a two-year secondment. Gamble reportedly stood down in protest at the Government's decision to merge Ceop into a new National Crime Agency, rather than granting it 'non-departmental public body' status, which would have given it more autonomy.

A review of Ceop by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in 2008, obtained by the Guardian, highlighted tensions between Ceop and particularly sectors of industry. "These tensions are openly acknowledged in the child protection community, whether it is by government departments, charities, academia or the industry itself. These tensions relate to issues of funding, report abuse button and conduct of the debate."

Though it concluded that there was no disagreement about the general need for reporting facilities, it hints at concerns raised by industry stakeholders about the lack of proper negotiation and collaboration.

"Industry representatives pointed out that they were not certain that the Ceop Centre appreciates the complexity of this environment... These differences of approach have been debated in the public arena which has contributed to a polarisation of positions between the Ceop Centre and some companies."

Some in the industry have said they would welcome a chief with a more conciliatory approach after a very public spat with Facebook threatened to overshadow much more important priorities for child safety online.

John Carr, internet adviser to the Children's Charities Coalition on Internet Safety (Chis) said social networking will remain a priority for online safety campaigners, though he said he is waiting to see the Government's full proposals for the new structure of Ceop to better understand how the changes will affect the community.

"I'm waiting to see what the proposal is," he said. "But I do think that some of Jim's points about the special nature of Ceop, and how it will be difficult to preserve that in a closer, police arrangement, have some validity."


Posted by
Jemima Kiss Tuesday 19 October 2010 17.33 BST
guardian.co.uk

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