An advertisement in Smash Hits for a company selling mobile phone logos and ring tones has been denounced by an industry watchdog.
The Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS) has fined the London-based Global Internet Billing £5,000 for exposing children to X-rated materials and breaking the code of conduct.
Smash Hits readers, who are aged between 11 and 16, were encouraged to either phone up directly or log on to the internet to symbols that included comic-style pictures of anal sex and naked women.
One of the adverts also featured a sample of the logos available, including "sex beast" and "bitch".
ICSTIS ruled GIB had breached a number of rules contained in the phone service industry's code of conduct.
The regulator ruled the contents of its websites were unsuitable for children and criticised GIB for charging more than the industry maximum of £3 to download each logo or ringtone.
GIB's defence was that it provided the service on behalf of a client called Handy Friends and had nothing to do with the content of the website or the adverts placed in Smash Hits.
A spokesman for Smash Hits said: "We are incredibly careful and only take adverts from reputable companies. We have not had any complaints about this but will look into it now it has been brought to our attention."
A spokesman for GIB said: "GIB has always supported ICSTIS and wishes to continue to work with the regulator in this and other areas within its remit."
The ICSTIS report also showed phone users clocked up more than 1bn minutes of premium rate calls last year.
This was partly a result of the phenomenal success of TV shows such as Big Brother.
The figure was 60% up on 1999, while the sheer volume of calls helped rake in an estimated £290m for phone companies, TV stations and other businesses.
Channel 4 said more than 18m viewers voted by telephone to evict contestants from the Big Brother house.
With the next series of Big Brother less than a week away, ICSTIS is bracing itself for a repeat of last year's surge in premium rate calls.
