CEOP announces 'record results' in child protection battle

Child protection net-cop quango the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre has announced what it describes as "record results" in its fifth annual statistics.

According to the agency, during 2010-2011 CEOP was responsible for the safeguarding of 414 children, the arrest of 513 child sex offenders and the disruption and dismantling of 132 child sex offender networks.

"Record results are an excellent way to celebrate our fifth anniversary," said CEOP top cop Peter Davies in tinned quotes supplied with the announcement.

"We now know that CEOP will become part of the new National Crime Agency and we know that we will go into that future with our brand, purpose and operating model intact. We have government endorsement for that and we have stakeholder and partnership support like never before – CEOP is very much open for business."

Davies' predecessor Jim Gamble resigned over the plans to bring CEOP into the NCA, saying that the move would lead to a shift in focus away from protecting kids and towards cuffing offenders – if not to a loss of concentration on child sex offences in general. Gamble also argued that the substantial funding received by CEOP from private-sector donations would be likely to dry up if it was brought under central government management.

CEOP's Annual Review and Centre Plan document, setting out the organisation's plan for the next 12 months, says that a primary goal will be "continuing to address the self-generated risk that children place themselves in" through its Thinkuknow online-safety education programme in schools. ®