'Sexist' in-app game ads set to be banned in UK for portraying 'shocking' images that are 'harmful' to women

'Degrading' ads that appear in mobile gaming apps will be banned by a UK watchdog for promoting harmful, sexist stereotypes. 

The ads which depict animated images of women as sexual objects, implied non-consensual sexual encounters and pornographic tropes have been appearing in games aimed at child audiences. 

They show alarming images of women and girls in detrimental scenarios, like dropping a baby at a fire station or having their privates unknowingly photographed,  where the user has to decide their fate. 

An investigation was launched by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after they received a dozen complaints from smartphone users regarding the objectifying ads. 

It found eight harmful ads were in 'serious' and 'clear breach' of UK advertising codes for featuring 'shocking' content showing female characters in violent and degrading scenarios. 

Investigators created four avatars representing the online profiles of different ages and genders to monitor which ads were being shown to certain audiences over a three-month period. 

Thankfully, the sheer majority of 5,923 ads the avatars were exposed to across 14 games or quizzes were positive - only eight were found to be sharing harmful gender stereotypes.

'It is unacceptable for any ads which reinforce negative stereotypes or depict women in a harmful way to be served to app users. This is in clear breach of our rules,' the report read. 

One advert for AI chatbot app Linky showed a young girl wearing a manga shirt, bunny ears and short skirt dancing in a bedroom with a prompt asking the player: 'Tell me which bf I should break up with?'.

 The three boyfriends to chose from were described as 'obsessively possessive', 'aggressively jealous', 'a kidnapper and a killer'.

The next page suggested pulling the woman into a car 'swiftly knocking her out' with a pop-up quote from her asking 'What if I enjoy this?'. 

The ASA said the ad was 'suggestive and implied scenarios involving violent and coercive control and a lack of consent'. 

Another ad for the app Perfect Lie that showed a teacher bent over with her bottom pixelated popped up in a game under the investigation's female child avatar.

A My Fantasy advert shown to both male and female child avatars portrayed a woman being pushed onto a desk by another woman. 

The player was prompted to choose how she should respond, with options such as 'enjoy it', 'push her away', 'please continue', and 'stop it'. 

Smartphone users are applauding the move by the ASA after complaining about the bizarre ads online. 

'Is there any way to block the Gossip Harbor ads? I'll take literally any other ads, but the GH ones are absolutely horrible,' one woman asked on Reddit. 

'Seriously! So many of these ads almost seem to have a fetish for women being abused and discarded by a man. So many ads where a woman finds her partner with another woman and gets kicked out in the cold, wtf?' another said.  

'I agree, there's one that is all sexual assault and domestic abuse. It's horrible to be playing games and then that flashes up. I started leaving one-star reviews on the games that do it with the reason being deceptive ads,' a third commented. 

One mum was shocked when she saw an inappropriate ad pop up on her 12 year old's iPhone when they were playing a game. 

'The animated ad depicted a boy taking a photo of a female's chest. The female then asked why he did that. 

'The app gave the player two choices that went along the lines of: 1. I like the way you look or 2. I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that.

'The boy selects option 1 to which the female replies positively, thanking him for the compliment!

'Not only should my child not be exposed to app ads above the age restriction I have set, but this is the way Apple is helping raise young men!

'Why is this happening? What can I do to stop my child being exposed to inappropriate ads? What will Apple do to take responsibility and stop this from happening to all children?' she said. 

The investigation was launched in response to the ASA finding 44 per cent of the UK's population is concerned about the depiction of women and girls in ads. 

'45 per cent say they are concerned about ads that include idealised body images of women and 44 per cent are concerned about the objectification of women and girls,' the report outlined. 

'This is followed by violent or distressing images (38 per cent are concerned), which 17 per cent say is the one issue they are most concerned about when compared with the other issues listed.'