He was the longest-serving editor of lads’ mag Loaded but Martin Daubney has nothing but regret over his contribution to the normalisation of soft porn and the objectification of women.

Daubney quit what he described as his dream job after eight years in 2009, one year after the birth of his son Sonny.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Daubney said he had originally regarded his job as “harmless fun”.

He recalls one incident in particular where he and six other university-educated colleagues sat down at the boardroom table and came up with 100 comedy words for breasts as part of a “We Love Boobs” special edition they were doing.

“It was an intellectual low-water mark,” he admits.

Then, with the birth of his son in 2009, he says his worldview changed “almost overnight”.

“For the first time, I became secretly ashamed of what I did for a living.

“My life had become a charade, switching between diametrically-opposed extremes — nipples by day and nappies by night.

“I started seeing the women in my magazine not as sexual objects, but as somebody’s daughter.

“Some of Loaded’s models had children themselves, and I’d think ‘what’s your kid going to think of you when they’re old enough to understand Mummy used to get her boobs out for a living?’

“To think that the girls who posed for our magazine had once had their nappies changed, had once been taught to take their first steps and had once been full of childlike hope … it was almost heartbreaking.”

When he looks back now, he admits that the contents of Loaded – mostly celeb and male-interest articles alongside pictures of half-naked women – was “severely pushing the envelope” of decency.

“We were normalising soft porn, and in doing so we must have made it more acceptable for young men to dive into the murky waters of harder stuff on the internet.

“And, for that, I have a haunting sense of regret.”

After the birth of his son, Daubney came to feel that Loaded was perhaps “part of the problem” and an “enabler” to young teenage boys who would then go on to harder porn later.

He arrived at the conclusion that to be the father of a young child and work in such a place would be “indefensible” and quit.

Now he says he is “ashamed” of the way he used to defend Loaded.

“Today I find myself agreeing with some of my fiercest former critics,” he writes.

He has now joined calls for tighter laws to make sure children cannot access pornography “as it can be so damaging”.

He especially hits out at the anonymous internet pornographers that fail to prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content.

Whereas a newsagent facing losing his licence and being shut down for selling an adult magazine to a minor, Daubney expressed anger that the internet pornographers and internet service providers continue to “wash their hands of the problem”.

Daubney also spoke of his “emphatic” support for the newspaper’s campaign to force ISPs to introduce opt-in filters and ensure they apply to smartphones as well as computers.

“Internet pornography is being pumped out on an industrial scale — straight into the bedrooms of our children.

“Two years after my exit, I can finally admit that I was part of the problem. By speaking out, in some tiny way I hope to be part of the solution.”