For one day, all visitors to UNICEF‘s website were met with a black overlay which blocked the entire page. On it was a message asking users to “pause” and wait before they could access the website, in a reference to the two years of violence without pause that Syrian children have been facing due to their country’s civil war. Since the beginning of the conflict, conditions for all people—but children especially—have dramatically deteriorated. At this point, some areas are seeing access to clean water significantly hampered, as well as rates of school attendance as low as 6 percent.
Once users waited the 5-10 seconds the overlay required, they were redirected to a special page containing a YouTube video appealing for an end to the crisis. After watching the video, or by clicking another link, browsers could then access UNICEF’s regular homepage. This technique of forcibly restricting access to visitors in order to raise awareness is extremely effective, and has a history of use by websites like Wikipedia.
Above is the video that UNICEF urges all people to watch. If we demand action from our elected officials, we can leverage the enormous power of the American economy to provide emergency aid and long-term assistance to the everyday Syrians who are suffering because of this intractable conflict.
— Jake Simon
Sources: Journalists for Human Rights, UNICEF
Photo: Flickr