back to article UK head of online child protection resigns

Jim Gamble, head of the UK’s Child Exploitation Online Protection Unit (CEOP), has resigned in a row over the supposed independence of his fiefdom. The announcement was made late Monday night, and it appears to be Gamble’s response to the outwardly technical issue of whether CEOP is to remain part of the new National Crime …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Richard 12 Silver badge

    Hopefully his replacement will understand the medium

    Though I doubt it.

    For example, "Panic" buttons are a fundamentally wrong-headed idea. Once you get it into people's heads that there will be such a button, then they'll click it *even if it isn't real*.

    Et voila! - Instant malware distribution technique.

    Furthermore, with the "real" button you'll get a significant number of people thinking "I don't like this person for an unrelated reason, I'll hit the button and make their life hell"

    The *real* way to protect children online is with Education. Teach children what the internet actually is, and how to secure *themselves* and their computers.

    Of course, that relies on the politicians and quangos knowing what the internet is, which is a rather larger problem.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apparently

    According to Radio 4, it might not just be him, that goes from the top of CEOP.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And lo it has come to pass

      'Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre row deepens

      'Three more managers ready to quit after departure yesterday of chief executive Jim Gamble in merger protest'

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/05/ceop-row-deepens-more-resignations

      The article goes on to say CEOP employes 120 people - how on earth did this body get so big and powerful without any legislative controls?

      And yep the (very) ex-Home Secretary Alan Johnson has chipped in:

      'The Home Office's lack of consultation has led to the resignation of Mr Gamble who is highly respected within and outside of the organisation he served so well'

      Highly respected? I think not Alan.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    So...

    ...he want's it to be a quango and suprise, suprise the goverment had told him to f**k off.

    He doesn't like it, so toys out of pram time. How very grown up.

    1. Tom 35

      He doesn't like it, so toys out of pram time.

      I think it was more like... Here is my list of new toys, if you don't give them to me I'll quit and then you will be screwed because you can't go on without me.

      He expected... please stay, we need you, here are your new toys, is there anything else we can get you?

      But got... ok then, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

  4. Spongibrain
    Troll

    "The business of child-protection"

    and the child-protection industry.

    As with all businesses, its about driving up demand to meet supply.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      and making a profit for someone no doubt

      Even if it is only to raise the funds to allow it to exist and pay the wages of the senior people running it.

  5. Ihre Papiere Bitte!!
    Happy

    Don't let the door hit you on the arse...

    "The world of child protection is unlikely to be quite the same without him"

    And thank god for that... We might see some intelligent ideas rather than policy by Daily Mail headline!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Summary?

    Essentially, the current Paedofinder General has thrown his teddy out of the pram because he's not been considered worthy of joining the ranks of the quangocracy.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bye Jim

    Jim obviously throwing a strop becuase his little empire, so carefully constructed with him at the top, will be dismantled. Nothing do do with child protection being harmed, purely the fact that his ego can't take not being number one.

    Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out Jim.

  8. Wommit
    Big Brother

    Ahhhhh didums

    Did the nasty Home Secretary take your toy away?

    Good.

    About time Jim Gamble realised that CEOP isn't his private fiefdom. But his attitude is clearly in line with that of other Chief Constables who seem to believe that they OWN the Police service that they're paid to manage.

    Giving control to a non chief constable might even bring some perspective into the whole affair, though I'm not betting on it.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think

    He's made the mistake of identifying himself too much with the organization he created.

    what did Louise-the-whateverth say? "L'État, c'est moi"?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Smoke and mirrors

    I wonder if this is just a distraction from what the real purpose of "child protection" is, and why this was regarded as a fiefdom.

    Kind of like this: http://www.tpuc.org/content/police-0

    I'll get me camouflage.

  11. Andrew the Invertebrate
    WTF?

    "to focus on its core business"

    Seriously, when did catching kiddy fiddlers become a business? Do Ceop'ers get bonus for the amount of child porn they find each month?

  12. jmarke

    Good Riddance

    The man may have many achievements to his name, but he was an uncontrolled zealot. That kind of blind fanaticism should never be allowed operational independence in any field; and given some notable mistakes by his agency over the years and the ruined lives left in its wake, this is especially true of the hysterically over-sensitive area of child protection.

  13. Mike Bell
    Pint

    Cheerio!

    That's what happens when you get delusions of grandeur, mate.

  14. Semaj
    Thumb Up

    a

    "The world of child protection is unlikely to be quite the same without him"

    Hopefully it will yes and hopefully the change will be that it's a much more logical world that actually helps people rather than just churning out propaganda.

  15. A J Stiles
    Thumb Up

    May I be the first to say,

    Good riddance to bad rubbish.

    1. ElFatbob
      Unhappy

      No such luck

      These guys are like polystyrene turds, inevitably floating to the top again..

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Good riddance

    Blackmailing websites into hosting your useless button claiming it would have saved the life of somebody who would never have pressed it in the first place is hardly gainful employment.

    Shouting "think of the children!" doesn't make it okay. After all, thinking of the children is what Gary Glitter was doing.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Jim and Ore

    It was Jim Gamble who was the architect of the operation ore fiasco where victims of identity thief were arrested as suspect paedophiles. The group action appeal is due very soon now possible a good time to be jumping the CEOP ship before the killer torpedo strikes.

  18. dephormation.org.uk
    Big Brother

    Child Protection is a Parent's Job

    If you want to give your children security, you should never give them unsupervised access to any communications network (phone, internet, mobile, TV).

    It is simply a question of taking parental responsibility for your own child in your own home.

    Its not about putting panic buttons on pages, which link to bland information, and then hoping for the best.

    We need to educate parents (and apparently Police officers too).

    1. irish donkey
      Megaphone

      I agree it is the parents responsibility

      But considering the amount of children beaten to death in the UK and other countries every year by their parents then we need to have safe guards for those children that cannot rely on their parents because their parents are Fuckwits unable to read never mind teach their children to use a computer properly.

      My kids can use a computer just as cynically as any adult but I do worry about some of their friends that regularly meet Johnny Depp on-line. They have the pictures to prove it.

    2. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Grenade

      Bullshit.

      "Just sit quietly in the corner there until Daddy comes home from work so he can supervise your surfing, Johnny. I'm sure he won't be long."

      My children get completely unsupervised access to the internet, and also to TV et al. I trust them to come and talk to me if they come across anything they don't understand, and I trust myself to talk through anything with them in a rational, adult fashion.

      GJC

  19. Rogerborg

    Game's changed, Jimbo

    You were the darling of the last lot of Whitehall troughers. The new lot have their own creatures to promote, and would quite welcome some vacancies. If you threaten to fall on your sword, they'll sharpen it up for you.

  20. Richard Wharram
    Thumb Up

    Thank Cheebus for that

    Maybe now we can have someone who understands how the internet works rather than someone who likes being in the Daily Mail.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh no!

    'I'm not going to be the centre of attention - well in that case I'm off!' Jim Gamble is now locked inside a giant wicker phallus outside of the Conservative Party conference and is threatening to set light to it unless his demands to be made grand commissar of the Internet are granted.

    Good riddance to the tedious little media whore. Perhaps we can now have a sane discussion of child protection - I wonder if Chris Morris is available.

  22. Graham Marsden
    Go

    But Won't Someone Think Of...

    ... The Quango and Jimmy's Empire Building!!!

    Go and good riddance!

  23. Red Bren
    Happy

    We don't need no steenkin' accountability

    "I am the law!" says Jim. Turns out he isn't.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Well Done, Coalition

    The only people I hear sobbing over Reverend Gamble's departure are the self-same advocacy groups who have made such a commercial killing 'partnering' with his congregation at CEOP over the past few years. As usual, they employ highly emotive and wilfully misleading terminology to describe the Reverend as nothing less than a saint. But I guess it's kind hard to wave goodbye to the goose that laid quite so many golden eggs. Times were so good back in the good old days at the height of the Paedogeddon, after all... it was the gift that just kept giving.

    The Operation Ore class action comes to court next month (finally). Big Jim is likely to feature prominently as it was he who led the entire fiasco from the start. That he should fall on his sword just about now is...well, let's just say it's 'interesting'. He does appear to have rather a lot of rather awkward questions to answer.

    For a fledgling CEOP, Gamble as CEO (it really is a commercial outfit, albeit one which also enjoys huge public handouts) was a star performer - his well-rehearsed patter was so very effective at dazzling the media with endlessly sensational soundbites - not one of which he was ever required to explain or to prove. The Reverend could say what he wanted, claim what he wanted, and threaten whomever he wished - all with impunity. The media (El Reg excepted, of course) rarely if ever took him to task for his increasingly hysterical utterances. With him, it was all about perception - and keeping the moral crisis high on the public agenda was an effective business plan during the cosy NuLabour years of huge (£multi-million) public handouts. How things change.

    No doubt at some future date he'll receive his gong for 'services to child protection' or some such. Quite where that leaves the hundreds who's lives were systematically ruined by CEOP's repeated witchunting over the years is anyone's guess, but I doubt they'll be applauding from the sidelines. The fact that Theresa May has not seen fit to reject his offer of resignation speaks volumes - I'll allow you to draw your own conclusions. When the only people arguing for his retention are those bottom feeders who - in these difficult financial times - happen to have a vested interest in his being at the head of CEOP, I think the picture's fairly clear for all.

    His legacy, such as it is, makes for pretty grim reading. Possibly the most offensive of them (and there really are so very many of them) is his championing of the 'cartoon pr0n' laws which have now become statute in England & Wales. It was CEOP who crowded round the Parliamentary consultation leading up to the law, urging Ministers to not only introduce this wretched law, but to attach fiercely punitive punishments to it - even going so far as to suggest (in all seriousness) that courts should treat 'cartoon pr0n' with the same level of severity as that of real, actual photographic CP. Just how delusional does one have to become to advocate such madness? The sky was the limit for Big Jim - who could stop him?

    The Coalition, it seems. Bravo.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    CEOP a success?

    In what sense? In the sense that they like to trumpet their own achievements as successes whether or not anyone else agrees (qv "panic button")? In that case, yes, success. Go ahead and spin this guy resigning as another "success". And then terminate the entire unit, please. For success surely breeds more success. Carry on government.

  26. ratfox
    Pint

    Amen!

    I'll drink to that. Good Riddance!

  27. JaitcH
    FAIL

    Hairy palms are better than ...

    damaged kids. < http://www.healthyplace.com/sex/men/masturbation-q-and-a/menu-id-66/ >

    Where is the irrefutable proof that people who download dubious images actually go on to assault children?

    This guy obviously was upset at not being able to build yet another government-funded empire. Tough, the UK has no money, so everyone has to chip in and help the national economy.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    "allowing CEOP to become the success that it is"

    Can we qualify the word "success" please?

    This question is born out of a genuine ignorance of CEOP's supposed successes and is not an attempt to denigrate them with subtle rhetoric.

    What have they achieved? I mean other than setting up a panic button. Number of paedos caught please? Because I don't recall anyone mentioning any stats like that, though I'm sure those are the kinds of stats that would make national news.

    We know the government keeps detailed stats on everything you've never cared about, so why don't they have any data for this? (oops couldn't help slipping some rhetoric in there)

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    First the miracle...

    ... now he'll be on the Vatican fast track to beatification.

    The great myth of "not-for-profits" is that they are not stuffed with those who profit handsomely.

This topic is closed for new posts.