· Generation losing out on family life, says report · Affluent children less likely to have bedroom TV

TVs and computers are the "electronic babysitters" for a generation of children who are losing out on family life and becoming more materialistic, a report says today. The study paints a picture of a breed of "screen kids" who are spending more and more time watching TV and surfing the net in their bedrooms, unsupervised by adults.

The Watching, Wanting and Wellbeing report from the National Consumer Council found nearly half the children from better-off families surveyed had televisions in their bedrooms, compared with 97% of the nine- to 13-year-olds from less well-off areas.

Children from poorer areas were also six times more likely to watch TV during the evening meal. And around a quarter of youngsters in this group admitted that they regularly watched the television at lunchtime on Sundays, compared with one in 30 children in better-off neighbourhoods. The NCC's report links increased TV viewing hours with greater exposure to marketing and higher levels of materialism.

The authors, Agnes Nairn, Jo Ormrod and Paul Bottomley, also found that materialistic children were more likely than others to argue with their family, have a lower opinion of their parents and suffer from low self-esteem.

NCC chief executive Ed Mayo said: "Today's children are now 'screen kids'. In some streets, every bedroom has a television for children and many have a computer.

"With many children watching or surfing when they wake up, at breakfast, after school, during dinner and in bed before sleep, we need to ask whether the electronic screen has now become the electronic babysitter."

Children in more deprived areas were most likely to watch commercial television and TV shows made for an older audience. Twice as many children in this group said they "believed" adverts as those in more affluent areas. Youngsters in disadvantaged areas also had greater levels of unsupervised access to television and the internet.

The research also shows that children's TV appears to be losing its appeal to youngsters, who say they are not watching programmes targeted at a younger age group. Fewer than half of all the 12- to 13-year-olds questioned listed any children's programmes in their three favourite shows. And children as young as nine picked out soaps, reality and horror shows among their favourites.

Dr Nairn, a researcher on children and marketing and affiliate professor of marketing at EM-Lyon Business School, told the Guardian: "The effect of so much television viewing and computer usage is that things are replacing people and family relationships are suffering. This is a bad cycle."

The NCC's research - the biggest such study carried out in the UK - was based on questionnaires completed by 557 nine- to 13-year-olds across schools ranked in the most affluent 15% and in areas ranked in the most deprived 15%.