Everyone knows, everyone worries about childhood today. But it is surprising that so often debates on children don't start from children's views themselves.

The worry about bringing up children in a commercial world falls into the same category. Any parent will say that there are all kinds of commercial pressures on children, treating them as consumers younger and younger. But is that a problem?

What is important is to find out what children make of consumer life and whether it really does it have an impact. This is what we at the National Consumer Council have done in researching what children watch, what they want and how it impacts on their well-being. The research, led by Dr Agnes Nairn, a leading marketing academic, Jo Ormrod, a clinical psychologist from Denmark and Paul Bottomley, a statistics fellow from Cardiff Business School, involved 557 children aged 9-13.

What we found was that today's children are now "screen kids". In some streets, every bedroom has a television for children and many have a computer. Many children say that they are watching or surfing when they wake up, at breakfast, after school, during dinner and in bed before sleep.

But, in terms of impact, there is evidence that they can have too much of a good thing. Children who spend lots of time in front of the screen are more likely to say that having more possessions will make them happy (ie they are more materialist), more likely to argue with their family and have lower self-esteem.

One stark finding was the difference between children from more affluent and more disadvantaged areas, where children are more likely to spend time on screen, be materialistic and are more trusting of adverts.

These connections between the outer world of an increasingly commercial life and the inner world of children are important to understand. There may be no simple answers, although surely far more could be done to help parents and equip children through some of the more imaginative approaches to media education that a few schools have taken forward.

In terms of children as consumers, both parents and children feel that all is not well. On the evidence we have collected, they are right. You can download a free copy of the NCC''s report here.