A German television show that attempts to unmask paedophiles using a young actress as bait has come under attack after a suspect vanished.

The program called Scene of the Crime: Internet - Protecting Our Children and hosted by a high-profile political wife is based on a similar US show, To Catch A Predator, that went off air after the suicide of a suspected molester in Texas in 2007.

Stephanie zu Guttenberg ... one of the presenters of the controversial program. Credit:Getty Images

On the show, a young woman pretending to be a minor seeks out potential child abusers in internet chat rooms. When a meeting is arranged, a girl playing a 13-year-old goes along, with the hidden cameras rolling.

The suspects, whose images are blurred and voices distorted when they are broadcast, are subsequently confronted by a journalist playing the mother of the young "victim". Then the case is handed over to the police.