Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), a self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the UK has found that almost a third of children aged between 11 and 16 have been upset or offended by an advert in the past year, the Daily Mail reported.
Youngsters were particularly distressed by some charity adverts, which showed shocking scenes of suffering of people or animals to encourage people to donate money.
Researchers said children felt worried, anxious and guilty because they wanted to help but were unable to do so.
Adverts for international aid charities, animal charities and child protection charities were frequently cited as being offencive, often because they use portrayals of violence or mistreatment in their advertising, the study said.
The children also said they were upset by some public service adverts, namely shocking scenes in road safety or anti drink-driving advertising.
Some boys identified the UK government's current anti-rape campaign as something which had made them feel uncomfortable. The advert shows teenage boy seen in a bedroom at a party refusing to listen to a girl's pleas to stop.
"While it is reassuring that we generally seem to be getting things right, we cannot ignore the real concerns that have been raised, particularly around children," Chairman of the ASA, Lord Smith was quoted by the paper as saying.
Researchers also found that youngsters were offended by ads with violent or frightening content, especially young girls.
Some children felt embarrassed about adverts with nudity, however, some younger children admitted that they did not always understand what was going on in these adverts.
In total 1,288 adults and 1,020 children aged between 11 and 16 were surveyed by a market research company between February and April this year.
The researchers found that the public generally agreed with the ASA's judgements about what adverts should be shown on television. And, there was broad agreement that advertising does not represent the 'worst offender' when it comes to harmful and offencive media content.
However, 16 per cent of adults revealed they were offended by an advert in the past year.
