Amsterdam - City of Sin

No other place on earth deserves the title of "sin city" as much as Amsterdam. With a myriad innovative ways to sell sex, Holland's capital draws a host of people lured by the relaxed attitudes and easy money. The first episode of this provocative three part series introduces the complete spectrum of the city's sexual wares.

Amsterdam has always been at the forefront of liberation. Today prostitution is fully legal and, unlike Britain and the USA, hard core sex can be broadcast live on-line. Girlfriend and boyfriend, Lulu and Boots, work as internet sex performers and are the sites' top attraction. Since arriving from London seven months ago, they perform seven days a week, four hours a night. Each shift earns them £60 each. Before entering the sex industry Lulu and Boots were dancers and they see their change in career direction as 'a logical progression'. Michael, the site's operator, estimates that 75% of customers visiting the site are American, with the rest coming from Europe.

Claudia Van Lubek and her husband Werner manage Interclimax, an internet voyeur house. They employ a number of girls to live and sleep in the house, which has close-up cameras installed in every room. The couple were live performers for two years before investing their money in setting up the interactive studio. Most to the girls come from Eastern Europe, preferring to enter the sex trade rather than working in poorly paid jobs elsewhere. The website designer Mark says 'Having all this hardcore on my hard drive makes me laugh, thinking I'm earning a living doing something that I'd be banged up for doing if I lived in the UK".

Escort agencies provide another facet of Amsterdam's sex trade. Elene advertises her agency under many different names in the yellow pages, providing girls for businessmen. She employs Robert her 16-year-old son as a tele-salesman. She says, " I don't know how it effects Robert... but I think he grows up as a normal boy.'

Whilst Elene's girls work in comparative comfort and can charge £100 an hour, a third of Amsterdam's 8,000 prostitutes work from 400 windows in the red light district. Prices for their services vary depending on the girls' age, looks and nationality:100 guilders, about £30, is the top rate.

Maria has been a window prostitute for two years having been introduced to prostitution by her boyfriend. She intended to do it for a month only. She says, "I want to stop doing this. It will be my last summer".

The most desperate level of prostitution exists behind Central Station, where sex is sold for as little as £3. Street prostitute Petra lives with Elizabeth, a crack user who sells her body to pay for her next fix. A dejected figure, Elizabeth, explains her predicament, "I am so alone, all I have is the customers and the drugs. That's all I have, but it's not what I want."