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Andrew Murray
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. |
