Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
Abbreviation	CEOP
The CEOP Centre's Logo
Agency overview
Formed	April 24, 2006
Preceding agency	Paedophile Online Investigation Team
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
National agency	United Kingdom
Map of Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre's jurisdiction.
Size	94,526 sq mi (244,820 km2)
Population	60,000,000
General nature	Law enforcement Local civilian police
Operational structure
Sworn members	120 (approx.)
Elected officer responsible	Theresa May, Home Secretary
Agency executive	Jim Gamble, CEO
Parent agency	Serious Organised Crime Agency
Website
http://www.ceop.gov.uk

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), formed in April 2006, is a UK cross agency and cross business department of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which is tasked to work both nationally and internationally to bring online child sex offenders, including those involved in the production, distribution and viewing of child abuse material, to the UK courts.^[1]

Purpose and operations

CEOP combines police powers with expertise from the business sector, government, specialist charities and other interested organisations.

Partners

CEOP is made up of police officers with specialist experience of tracking and prosecuting sex offenders working with people from organisations including the NSPCC and Childnet, Microsoft and AOL. Partnerships have been set up across non-government bodies, including: NCH, NSPCC, Barnardos; business (Microsoft, AOL, Serco, Vodafone etc) and UK Government departments (Children, Schools and Families; Home Office; Foreign and Commonwealth Office etc). CEOP works with organisations such as The Scout Association , the Football Association, the England and Wales Cricket Board, British Telecom, and Lycos to widen the scope of its work.^{[citation needed]}

Global work

The CEOP Centre is also a partner in an international law enforcement alliance – the Virtual Global Taskforce. This was set up in 2004 and provides an international alliance of law enforcement agencies across Australia, the USA and Canada as well as Interpol in bringing a global policing response to tackling documented child abuse.

Faculties

The centre is split into three faculties; Intelligence, Harm Reduction and Operations. Each faculty is supported by teams covering governance, communications, partnerships and corporate services. The intelligence faculty receive intelligence of online and offline offenders; all reports made through the centre's website, and ThinkUKnow.co.uk are dealt with at any time of day so that law enforcement action can be taken. The Harm Reduction faculty manage Public Awareness campaigns and educational programmes, including the ThinkUKnow education programme, which is currently being used in UK schools. The Operations Faculty aims to tackle both abusers and those who exploit children for financial gain.^{[citation needed]}

CEO

Main article: Jim Gamble

Jim Gamble was Chief Executive of CEOP until he resigned in October 2010 over a row concerning the proposed integration of CEOP with the National Crime Agency.^[2] A senior police officer of 25 years, he was head of the Northern Ireland anti-terrorist intelligence unit in Belfast, then most recently tackled organised crime as the Deputy Director of the National Crime Squad. In March 2010 Gamble called for a "panic button" - for the public to report suspected paedophiles - to be installed on the main profile page of every Facebook user.^[3]

Prosecutions

CEOP gained its first successful prosectution in June 2006, when Lee Costi, 21, of Haslemere, Surrey, was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court where he admitted grooming schoolgirls for sex. Costi was caught when a Nottingham girl told her mother about his chatroom messages.^[4]

Following this, in June 2007, Timothy Cox was jailed at a court in Buxhall, Suffolk, following a 10-month operation by CEOP Officers, as well as other Virtual Global Taskforce Members, leading to 700 new suspects being followed up by law enforcement agencies around the world.^[5]

See also

• Internet Watch Foundation
• Serious Organised Crime Agency
• Jim Gamble
• ThinkUKnow
• Virtual Global Taskforce

References

1. ^ Launch of Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, 24/04/06, W/E - CIW
2. ^ BBC News: Online child protection chief Jim Gamble resigns. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11472033 as of 19/12/2010
3. ^ "Facebook rules out installing 'panic button'", BBC News, 18 March July 2010. Accessed 2010-03-21.
4. ^ BBC NEWS | England | Web paedophile given nine years
5. ^ Latest news - CEOP

External links

• CEOP homepage
• Report Child Abuse or Grooming online
• Thinkuknow - CEOP education programme for young people

Video clips

• CEOP YouTube channel