Jim Gamble expands his empire to social websites

'NAME AND SHAME' PLAN FOR WEBSITES

Guardian Unlimited, UK: 8 September 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1868163,00.html

Websites that fail to protect children from sexual predators could
face legal action from a new online child protection agency.

The huge popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace, where
millions of youngsters have posted personal information, has increased
concern at the potential for paedophiles to 'groom' youngsters for
abuse through the internet.

Websites that are "obstructive or unhelpful" would be "named and
shamed" and legal action against them would be considered, said Jim
Gamble, the former anti-terrorist police officer who heads the Child
Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

"I would no more ban the internet as a whole than ban a library, but
you need to look at those sections that create a risk. Then you have
to think about inhibiting people from going to it," Mr Gamble told the
Financial Times.

The centre was set up earlier this year to provide a single point of
contact for the public, police and companies such as Microsoft, AOL
and Visa and the communications industry to report the targeting of
children online.

It offers advice and information to parents and potential victims of
abuse and works with police forces around the world to protect
children.

The centre secured its first conviction in June when student Lee Costi
was jailed for nine years for having sex with two teenage girls he met
on the internet.

Last month, as part of its partnership with the Centre, Microsoft put
a "report abuse" button on its MSN Messenger chat software so users
can report suspected sexual predators directly to the police.

Mr Gamble said the "report abuse" button was part of the centre's
"Safer by design" plan, which was designed "to make predators have a
lack of confidence because of what is going on behind the scenes while
they are online".
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