Flat screen televisions are the latest fear for parents who want to wrap their kids in bubble wrap and protect their precious little snow flakes from real life.

According to NBC nearly 17,000 children were rushed to emergency rooms in 2007, the last year for which complete figures were available, after heavy or unstable furniture fell over on them.

The study, published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics by researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, found that the such injuries had risen 41 percent since 1990. But the bigger killer is the popularity of ever-bigger flat-panel televisions that Americans have brought into their homes in that time, along with the entertainment centres and narrow furniture.

The problem is that people shove them on less-stable stands and falling flat screens make up half of the 'falling furniture' injuries. Kids also don't seem to understand that you can't actually climb a flat screen television and many parents seem to think it is cute.