Child unit boss blasts ISPs' costs

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According to the BBC, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) has spent more than £170,000 on gathering internet data since it was founded in 2006.

The sum, which has gone to internet service providers (ISPs) which charge for their information, was revealed through a Freedom of Information request made by the broadcaster.

CEOP chief executive Jim Gamble said that having to pay such sums was "ridiculous".

Mr Gamble said he had no objections to paying for information when investigating "ordinary" criminal activity.

But he argued it was unacceptable when trying to prevent children being harmed through an online area operated by the ISPs.

He told the BBC: "Where it's any type of ordinary criminal offence, then of course we need to pay. If we are diverting them from their core business we need to recompense them for that.

"Their core business is the online environment, bringing customers to that environment, and where customers coming to that area commit a crime, it's ridiculous that we would have to pay to successfully investigate that."

Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the Internet Service Providers' Association, told the BBC: "ISPs charge a certain amount to recover their costs, this is not about them making money. Many companies don't actually make those charges.

"There's a whole lot of other work in terms of training police and finding more information that doesn't get part of the equation in terms of those costs."