SEX BYTES; Free Net Nookie Hits Pros

INTERNET dating sites - and the free nooky on offer - are slowly killing the country's sex industry.

"Everyone is screaming out for work," says one parlour veteran. "It is so easy to meet for sex through internet dating sites. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad when it's free."

And the worrying decilne is confirmed by Prostitutes Collective national co-ordinator Catherine Healy, who says a reduction in the use of hookers is partly blamed on online liaisons.

"Brothel owners are certainly feeling it," she says.

Madam Mary doesn't mince her words.

"Why would a man pay for sex with a working girl who is a stranger when he can hook up for free with a stranger?

"There is physically no more work. On a Friday night in the good old days a girl could see eight men. Now it's three of four max - and a lot are only getting one."

Madam Mary is a dominatrix from Wellington's specialist bondage, discipline and sado-masochism parlour the MM Club.

She's worked with prostitutes for nine years and says her finger is on the industry's pulse. But it's not beating to the same old drum.

And Healy says Mary could be right.

"There's a significant number of people who now meet through the internet. But it's hard to know how much it has hit the sex industry."

Healy admits brothel owners are feeling the squeeze and complaining about reduced numbers, but are also blaming it on the industry going legit.

"They think prostitution law reform brought about the demise of sex work because the reforms took away the mystery."

She says the number of condoms dispensed by hookers remains the same, suggesting the industry is not so much suffering but sharing in a growing sex wave.

Madam Mary's business has not suffered because it offers something not found on dating sites.

"All of our women are `specialists' and sex is their chosen field of expertise. Show me a man who doesn't have a sexual fantasy and we will prove he's lying."