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


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


A Statement about Australia's Age Assurance Technology Trial Preliminary Findings
At CTRL+SHFT, we stand with every parent, educator, and policymaker working to protect young people. We welcome the preliminary findings...

Kirra Pendergast
Jun 201 min read


Why “Sexual Extortion” Must Replace “Sextortion”
We need to discuss the language we use when referring to digital harm, abuse and crimes. Because right now, in schools, in courtrooms, in...

Kirra Pendergast
Jun 163 min read


***Trigger warning*** Three Dead Teenagers. One Common Thread. Apple’s iMessage Failed Them.
This is not a story about technology. This is a story about neglect. Over the weekend I read an article in The Wall Street Journal that...

Kirra Pendergast
Jun 106 min read


How Photos on a School Facebook Page Have Become AI Training Data
This isn’t an argument against AI in education. It’s a warning about whose AI we’re using and what we’re risking every time we hand it...

Kirra Pendergast
Jun 95 min read


The Hidden Fault Line and Why Digital Safety Will Make or Break Your Organisation
Systems full of pressure, distraction, and exhaustion. Systems threaded with constant connectivity—where the line between the digital and...

Kirra Pendergast
Jun 63 min read


The Silent Crisis of 2025 This Is What Bullying Looks Like Now
A disappearing name in a group chat. A message was screen-captured and sent to twenty people before the original sender knew they’d...

Kirra Pendergast
Jun 24 min read


The Children of 764
****Trigger warning**** This post mentions multiple crimes and abuse towards children. It started, with a boy in a bedroom. Alone,...

Kirra Pendergast
May 295 min read


Duolingo’s CEO Just Came for Teachers.........And Missed the Point Entirely.
In early May, Luis von Ahn, the founder and CEO of Duolingo, said something on the " No Priors " podcast I have been stewing on for the...

Kirra Pendergast
May 283 min read


1 in 10 Teens Are Being Blackmailed for Nudes Before They Turn 16.
Predators Don’t Wait Until Term 3. So Why Are We? There are moments in parenting and teaching when we realise what we do next will shape...

Kirra Pendergast
May 263 min read


When AI Gets It Deadly Wrong
In the past 24 hours, something significant happened in the world of artificial intelligence and for once, the news wasn’t about shiny...

Kirra Pendergast
May 231 min read


Has This Discord Dataset Crossed a Line?
It’s hard to believe anyone would feel comfortable knowing nearly a decade of their Discord messages are now bundled into a public JSON...

Kirra Pendergast
May 224 min read


A practical guide for those who witness too much, too often, in a world overwhelmed by digital chaos.
Please use when you need it. Print out the guide attached or share it if you choose. For well over a decade, I’ve sat in the classrooms,...

Kirra Pendergast
May 187 min read


Synthetic Lies & Stolen Minds. Please Sign our Petition.
We stand with Common Sense Media in calling for urgent global standards. As Australians, we demand immediate action here at home....

Kirra Pendergast
May 104 min read


The Babysitter is Bleeding
There is a reason the child is quiet. And it isn’t because they are safe. The silence is bought with a screen. A screen that hums with...

Kirra Pendergast
May 63 min read


Italian Brainrot - What Parents Really Need to Know
The viral nonsense your child is quoting at dinner? It didn’t come out of nowhere and it’s not harmless. by Kirra Pendergast & Anna...

Kirra Pendergast
May 66 min read
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