The director of the Greek police’s electronic crime unit yesterday called for the revocation of a law that prevents police from accessing the personal data of people who view and trade in child pornography over the Internet.

“Every day thousands of pedophiles and sex traffickers are in Internet chat rooms since the law tolerates it,” said Manolis Sfakianakis, who said the 1994 bill was obsolete.

Addressing Parliament’s committee on research and technology, Sfakianakis said police should be granted access to personal transactions over the Internet in cases involving child pornography and warnings of impending suicides. Currently officers only have such access in the case of suspected murder, blackmail and organized crime such as human trafficking.

MPs agreed that measures should be taken to crack down on Internet porn but expressed fears about possible violations of privacy laws. The Communications Privacy Protection Authority (ADAE) is to consider the matter next week.