The Top Shelf report, commissioned by Labour MP Claire Curtis-Thomas, recommends that lads' mags and newspapers such as the Daily Sport should carry age-appropriate 16 or 18 certificates depending on the content.
The current voluntary code of practice drawn up by the Periodical Publishers Association and the Home Office recommends that retailers display magazines like Nuts, Zoo and Maxim well above children's eye level and away from children's titles and comics.
However the Top Shelf report claims that retailers are flouting the guidelines and displaying lads' mags at the eye-level of children aged six to 15.
Curtis-Thomas is optimistic that ministers will take up her recommendations to introduce cinema-style age ratings.
The report surveyed a sample of sixth-form students and found that 100% of girls who looked at the Daily Sport, Zoo and Nuts reported being angry, offended or upset by the images they contained.
Only 11% of male students said they felt the same but one fifth admitted the material encouraged them to see women as sex objects.
The PPA said that a voluntary code is "far more effective and flexible than any statutory regulation".
Ben Todd, editor of Zoo, said: "We should be treated like a cheeky seaside postcard. In our case, the most revealing aspect is topless pictures, which is no more than you see in the Sun or the Daily Star. So, if any sort of age restrictions are going to be introduced, I'd expect them to include those papers too."
Earlier this year Michael Gove, the Conservative education spokesman, accused lads' mags of promoting "selfish irresponsibility" among young men and causing the collapse of conventional family life in Britain.
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