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The number of TV ads for payday loans has rocketed 3,500% – with firms preying on poor households with children, shocking research reveals.

Firms such as Wonga have spent a fortune plugging short-term loans as families are left struggling in the wake of the crippling downturn.

A study by telecoms regulator Ofcom found how, in 2009, there were 11,000 payday loan ads shown on TV. But this figure had surged to 243,000 by 2011, then to 397,000 last year.

That resulted in a leap in people watching the ads – up from 12million viewings for all adults in 2008 to 7.5billion during 2012, which works out at 152 times per person.

The Ofcom data shows lenders are targeting the less well off. The average low-income adult saw double the number of payday loans ads – 203 – as those better off because of how the adverts are placed.

Even more disturbing is children’s exposure to the ads which push loans charging up to 5,000% annual interest.

Ofcom’s report showed the average four to 15-year-old saw 70 payday loan ads last year. Some 3% of those ads were shown during kids’ TV programmes. Others regularly appear on music channels popular with ­teenagers.

The revelations comes as City ­regulator the Financial Conduct Authority prepares a clampdown on payday lenders with new powers next April.

Chancellor George Osborne has also vowed to cap the cost of the loans – in a landmark victory for the Mirror’s End Legal Loan Sharking campaign.

Citizens Advice chief ­executive Gillian Guy said: “Payday lenders are unashamedly and ­irresponsibly using adverts to prey on poorer households in a bid to ­capitalise on the cost of living crisis.

"They should not be targeting children and teenagers with adverts. It is deeply concerning that children and teenagers were exposed to three times as many payday loan ads in 2012 compared to in 2010.

“More and more adverts are appearing on music channels and TV stations popular with teenagers and young people as lenders try to entice the next generation of borrowers.”

The union Unite called for a 9pm watershed for payday loan adverts.

Assistant general secretary Steve Turner said: “This research paints a horrific picture of a generation of children and young people being groomed into a culture of debt.

“It is not just children being infected by a payday loan culture – research shows people are borrowing £660 a month just to pay for food, housing and heating.”