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Insights.
Helping you stay ahead of emerging news and technology.


Why Digital Safety Needs to Starts with What We Don’t SayWhy Digital Safety Needs to Starts with What We Don’t Say
It started, as these things often do, with good intentions. One of the many Online Safety Educators that are popping up all over LinkedIn had seen something concerning online. We need to keep front of mind that we live in an attention economy where concern is currency. Outrage fuels algorithms and even posts intended as red flags often guide users directly to the thing they were told to fear. And not just kids. Adults too. We’ve seen it again and again: a new AI companion app

Kirra Pendergast
4 days ago1 min read


Roblox & Leadership in an Era of Algorithmic Exploitation
Last month Roblox announced a major expansion of age estimation across all users who access its communication features rolling out facial age estimation, ID verification, and verified parental consent by the end of the year. This will moves Roblox beyond outdated self-declaration models and into a future-proofed system that understands both today’s risks and tomorrow’s responsibilities. At its core it means that Roblox is implementing new controls that will limit communicatio

Kirra Pendergast
6 days ago1 min read


What Erotica for ChatGPT Really Signals About AI’s Direction
This isn’t just about erotica it’s about escalation and it’s already begun as we predicted. This is not a feature drop it’s a whopping big signal. A signal that the architecture of intimacy is being handed over to systems that simulate emotion but are incapable of understanding it. OpenAI announced less than 24hrs ago that they are preparing to loosen content restrictions on ChatGPT, opening the door to adult themes including erotica, as part of what CEO Sam Altman calls a br

Kirra Pendergast
7 days ago5 min read


What Happens Next
The quiet unravelling after deepfake abuse and what we can do better. Today I was sent an article from the ABC that you can read here . The story doesn’t end with police involvement. It doesn’t end with headlines. It barely even begins there. What happens next off-camera, off-record, and often off-script is what should worry us most.There is a stark asymmetry in the aftermath of digital sexual harm. If the perpetrator is over the age of 18yrs they will face serious charges. I

Kirra Pendergast
7 days ago3 min read


The Future Is Fake (Deepfake)
This week, three developments grabbed my attention, and they’re not disconnected. They expose a pattern: innovation outpacing...

Kirra Pendergast
Oct 74 min read


We need a radical redefinition of student-centred communication
It used to be simple when a student won an award, made the team, spoke at assembly, and someone took a photo. That photo ended up in the...

Kirra Pendergast
Sep 263 min read


The Disappearing Line Between Style and Surveillance
Two decades ago, a Harvard sophomore stitched together a cruel little website. It raided student directories without permission, ripped...

Kirra Pendergast
Sep 243 min read


The Free Speech Myth. What We Owe Our Kids About Truth and Law in Australia.
The words free speech carry a seductive power. They’re waved in protest signs, muttered in pub arguments, thrown into comment threads on...

Kirra Pendergast
Sep 244 min read


The Australian Minimum Age Regulatory Framework Decoded
The Social Media Minimum Age (SMMA) legislation was passed in 2024. Until last week, the details of how it would work were unclear. With...

Kirra Pendergast
Sep 223 min read


Why Total Photo Bans in Early Childhood Hurt Children More Than They Help
Across Australia, more and more early childhood services are quietly shutting their lenses. No images sent home. In some centres, every...

Kirra Pendergast
Sep 104 min read


Why OpenAI’s New Invention Should Scare the Hell Out of Everyone
This is one of those inflection points in tech history that should be lighting up every radar… product, policy, legal, safety,...

Kirra Pendergast
Sep 73 min read


On the Algorithms That Hear Us
This morning, my partner called me from Italy on Signal. He rang to wish me a happy birthday. There was that comforting little delay, the...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 254 min read


Presence not Pixels
What 1,000 Children Just Taught Us About the Future of Education By Kirra Pendergast When we talk about education, we default to the...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 245 min read


How AI is Quietly Fuelling Eating Disorders and What Parents Deserve to Know
The screenshot below isn’t clickbait. It’s not even rare. It’s a mother’s real post to a support group on Facebook that was sent to me...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 183 min read


Meta Trained a Machine to Flirt With Children. A Man Died Believing a Bot Loved Him. And the People Who Built It Still Show Up to Work.
These images of “Big sis Billie” were generated using Meta AI on Meta’s Facebook Messenger service, in response to a Reuters...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 154 min read


ChatGPT Told a 13-Year-Old How to Die. It Took Just Two Minutes.
Trigger Warning: This piece discusses suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, and substance abuse involving minors. If you or someone you...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 152 min read


Boys Think It Won’t Happen to Them. Predators Are Betting On It.
A scatter of sideways glances, twitching grins, half-swallowed laughs. Not cruel, not even overtly dismissive just buoyed by the comfort...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 133 min read


How to hear between the lines
When Big Tech CEOs speak, they don’t shout, they soothe. They turn risk into “connection,” danger into “innovation,” and reframe your...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 91 min read


Preparing Teens for Under-16 Social Media Ban
If you would like to book a 45-minute "Preparing for the 16+ Age Delay Webinar and Q&A" with Kirra Pendergast for your school community,...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 83 min read
JULY 2025 JUST DELIVERED LEGAL PRECEDENT: When the bell rings, the duty does not end.
The line between what schools know and what they do just got a legal reckoning - by Andrea Turner Ctrl+Shft Legal Advisor In July 2025,...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 63 min read


What You Share With ChatGPT Could End Up on Google. Here’s What You Need to Understand.
We’re living through a moment where digital instincts haven't caught up with digital reality. A moment where a feature can feel like a...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 23 min read


What To Do If A Child Is Being Bullied Online
When things go wrong online, it is 24/7, it cuts deeper, lasts longer, and follows them home. Whether your child is being bullied, or...

Kirra Pendergast
Aug 14 min read


Why Blaming Parents Helps No One
When a child makes a catastrophic mistake online, the first question people ask is always the same. Where were the parents? It’s a...

Kirra Pendergast
Jul 305 min read


What Parents Deserve to Know, and What Centres and Schools Must Confront
Last week, like so many others, I sat with the weight of the news. The devastating revelations of abuse in early childhood education...

Kirra Pendergast
Jul 65 min read
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