Falling TV sets have killed more than 200 children since 2000, but parents remain largely unaware of the danger. You would think that switching to lighter flat screen units would prevent this from happening. But actually, it's just the opposite.

In fact, safety experts say the switch may be making the problem worse as consumers take old, heavy sets out of their family rooms and put them atop unstable bedroom dressers and playroom shelves.

Children will climb up on furniture to try to turn the TV on and there goes the heavy television as well as the piece of furniture. The TVs alone, weighing 50 to 100 pounds, can crush a child.

TVs are being put on shelves never designed to hold them as well.

But flat screen TVs are falling on kids, too, and a new survey shows few parents are installing those in the safest way. Every three weeks a child dies from a tipped-over TV.

An update from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission shows 29 people, mostly children, were killed by falling TVs in the USA in 2011 alone, making it one of the worst years on record for such tragedies. And 18,000 people a year, mostly children, are treated for injuries from falling TVs.

TV sets are one of the most popular holiday gifts, but as this story reminds us, if parents aren't careful they could be inviting a deadly danger into the home.

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