Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/984659
NEWS 12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 MAY 2018 MATTHEW AGIUS THE heir and nephew of Mabel Strickland, Robert Hornyold Strickland, will be filing an appeal against a court's decision to reject a number of claims he filed against the Strickland Foun- dation over the use of her Lija palazzo. The case concerned the interpretation of Mabel Strickland's will on the ex- tent of the right of use and habitation granted to her nephew Robert Hornyold Strickland, of Villa Parisio, which she also left as the property and seat of the Strickland Foundation – the major shareholder in Allied Newspapers, publishers of The Times. In her will, Strickland be- queathed Villa Parisio to the Foundation and granted Hornyold Strickland "the right of use and habitation of the guests rooms with bathroom and study at Villa Parisio, provided that the enjoyment of such right shall in no way intefere with the work of the foundation." Hornyold Strickland in- sists that his rights extend to all the rooms in the villa, and requested the court to order the foundation to grant him possession of all these rooms. The founda- tion claims the will limits him to "the guests rooms with bathroom and study at Villa Parisio provided that the enjoyment of such right shall in no way intefere with the work of the foundation." But Judge Silvio Meli re- jected Hornyold Strick- land's interpretation, saying his use of the villa is limited to those areas indicated by the executors of the will. The judge also partially ac- cepted two claims made by Hornyold Strickland points, going as far as to strongly censure the behaviour of the Strickland Foundation in treating the family "with inhuman disrespect" and "that the foundation should not treat" Mabel's heir "like some insignificant person that is not worthy of human respect". YANNICK PACE PARENTS of children attend- ing the Archbishop's Seminary have been advised by the school to limit the time their children spend look at screens of elec- tronic devices to not more than two hours a day over fears that excessive exposure could nega- tively impact their development. In a recent letter, psychothera- pist David Grillo, the pastoral care co-ordinator at the school, warned parents that research showed that there was a link between "excessive screen time and depression and other men- tal health issues". One reason for this, he said, was the fact that electronic de- vices emit blue light – light with a higher amount of energy and greater ability to bring about physiological changes – which can cause sleep pattern dis- turbances, leading to "mental health difficulties". In addition to the disruption of sleeping patterns, parents were warned of the dangers of gaming addiction, both when it comes to the children's ability to form social bonds, as well as their de- pendency on games. Contacted by MaltaToday about what had prompted him to write to parents, Grillo, who said he has been practising psy- chotherapy for 18 years, and working in education for 20, de- scribed encountering situations where children who were usu- ally "calm and organised" started becoming careless and forgetful. "They come to school with missing or incomplete home- work, which would clearly have been done in a hurry," he said. More worryingly, he added, the school started to observe a pattern of children becoming "verbally and sometimes even physically abusive with their parents when told to stop play- ing online". He insisted that there was a clear pattern and his observation was not limited to a one-off case. Grillo stressed that he was not against the use of electronic de- vices and online gaming, point- ing out that satisfying play time was fundamental to psychologi- cal and social development. De- spite this, he said problems start when "excessive screen time and the virtual world take over real- ity". "We meet students who are good at sport for example, but who now prefer to stay at home playing online, and who end up abandoning their favourite sport," he said. "We also have children who recite games in their head while at school and who lose concentration easily as a result." Grillo also pointed to the fact that the fast and immediate gratification we get from games and the internet means children are less patient and more easily bored when they are away from their devices. Like social media, digital games give users a quick surge of hap- piness mediated by the pleasure chemical dopamine whenever they are used. The more of the chemical the body gets, the more it wants, leading users to spend more and more time using their devices if not controlled. As technology has developed, screens have become increasing- ly more ubiquitous and are now an essential part of life but Grillo insisted that this was no reason to give in. "Do we stop fighting pollution just because cars are necessary?" He said that while it was true that most adults spent much more than one or two hours a day looking at screens, their brains weren't as "fast-develop- ing" and vulnerable as those of children and that understanding the concept of limits and excess- es was just as important and a part of life. Asked whether he was aware of other schools having sent similar letters to parents, Grillo said he was. Moreover, he said he believed there needed to be more infor- mation made available to par- ents by local authorities about the risks on children of over-ex- posure to technological devices, and that children who were ad- dicted to games needed to be helped and treated as such. School tells parents to beware of kids' excessive screen time Excessive exposure to screens is negatively impacting children's development, school co- ordinator tells parents "Children who are usually calm and organised become careless and forgetful… they come to school with missing or incomplete homework" Strickland heir to file appeal Robert Hornyold Strickland