Scores of paedophiles are going unpunished in Greece where an outdated privacy law forbids the disclosure of suspect details, the head of the Greek police unit against electronic crime has revealed.

"Paedophiles are dancing freely on the backs of our children with the tolerance of the law," police major Manolis Sfakianakis told Parliament in statements carried in the press.

Mr Sfakianakis said that under a 2005 presidential decree on communication privacy, internet service providers are no longer bound to reveal the identity of suspected paedophiles even when police hone in on their electronic tracks. Another pertinent telecoms law dating from 1994 does not address single-user paedophilia at all, he added.

"We know who the suspects are but cannot apprehend them," Mr Sfakianakis said, noting that a similar problem arises in preventing online suicides where police have to "improvise" by gleaning hints from username details.

Eleven suicide attempts have been prevented since 2006, including three this month, he said. The police have asked the government to amend the law. "It's true, this law omission makes it from exceptionally difficult to impossible to track people who commit serious misdemeanours," Sotiris Bayias, head of the union of Greek prosecutors, told To Vima daily. Sexual abuse of minors is considered a taboo subject in Greece and rarely elicits a reaction from the authorities.