Britain’s advertising watchdog has banned two American Apparel ads depicting “upskirt” shots of schoolgirls, after receiving complaints that the images were offensive and overtly sexual.

The ads, which were featured on the retailer’s U.K. website and the company’s Instagram account, both feature a girl wearing a short pleated skirt and photographed from a low angle. In one photo, the subject is bent over on the side of a car with her buttocks visible. In the other, the female subject is bending over while standing in a field. Her underwear and buttocks are visible. The images have since been removed.

After receiving complaints, the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority launched an investigation and determined that the images focused on the subject’s buttocks and groin, rather than on the skirt being modelled.

“We considered the images were gratuitous and objectified women, and were therefore sexist and likely to cause serious and widespread offence,” the ASA said in a ruling posted to their website on Wednesday.

The watchdog also said that the images “imitated voyeuristic” upskirt shots with a subject portrayed as a school-age girl, which therefore had the potential to normalize “predatory sexual behaviour.”

In a statement, American Apparel said that the models featured in the ad campaign were over 18 years of age, and were not “portrayed in a manner which was vulnerable, negative or exploitative.”

The ads prompted outrage over social media:

One tweeter with the handle @anygirlfriday wrote that the skirts fueled "Lolita fantasies and rampant sexism a plenty."