The survey of almost 800 education staff carried out by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) found that two-thirds said Big Brother caused poor behaviour among pupils. More than three in five cited Little Britain as a bad influence and more than two in five said Eastenders caused bad behaviour.
Types of behaviour caused by television programmes included general rudeness such as answering back, mentioned by 88 per cent of respondents, as well as using inappropriate language (82 per cent), aggression (74 per cent) and sexually inappropriate behaviour (43 per cent).
Members of ATL will vote at its annual conference next week on whether to call on the union's executive committee to lobby television broadcasters to consider the consequences of showing programmes containing examples of bad behaviour before the watershed.
Mary Bousted, ATL's general secretary, said: "It is worrying that some of the youngest pupils do not know what behaviour is acceptable and when they should use it, and cannot differentiate between what they have seen on TV and real life."
