Search: Alcohol TV advertising rules
Campaigners have called for a 9pm watershed on alcohol advertising amid claims that millions of children watched the ads during live World Cup games.
Alcohol Concern said children as young as four watched alcohol ads from brands such as Stella Artois, Magners, Fosters, Carling and WKD during the World Cup.
The ads screened during live England games between 8pm and 10pm and were within advertising regulations.
According to the charity, 1.6 million children viewed three alcohol adverts during England's game against Algeria and 1.4 million saw four alcohol adverts during the game against the US.
Even non-England games such as Uruguay v Netherlands had 800,000 children viewing three alcohol adverts.
A separate study by Alcohol Concern of 80 youngsters aged between 11 and 18 in the East Midlands, London and the North West over the summer found that the children were exposed to on average four alcohol adverts in one day or 1,600 per year.
TV was the most frequently cited medium of exposure, followed by ads in shops or supermarkets and on billboards. Girls reported more exposure to spirit and wine marketing than boys, while boys reported more exposure to cider and alco-pops.
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Alcohol Concern chief executive Don Shenker said: "It is simply unacceptable that vast numbers of children are so frequently exposed to alcohol advertising, leading to higher levels of drinking among young people and increasingly higher levels of harm. Alcohol producers and advertising regulators are clearly not taking their responsibilities seriously enough and only a watershed ban on TV and an internet ban will prevent the vast majority of children from being exposed to alcohol marketing."
The charity is also calling for a ban on alcohol ads in cinemas other than during 18-rated films and a ban on alcohol sponsorship of sports and music events.
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, of the Royal College of Physicians, said: "The evidence is clear - children are affected by alcohol marketing. It influences the age at which they start drinking and how much they then drink. Alcohol is a drug of potential addiction and if drinks producers and retailers won't stop pushing it at our children then urgent and tough legislation is needed to protect them."
