Kirra Pendergast - Founder
Founder, Global Leader in Human-Centred Online Safety & International Keynote Speaker
Hi I'm Kirra,
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I have spent 34 years at the intersection of technology, cybersecurity, psychosocial risk, and human behaviour, I’ve worked on everything from post-9/11 counter-terrorism strategies to whole-of-government digital risk and identity and access management frameworks. I started in tech in 1991—before most people had access to the fledgling internet.
By 2008, I was already warning governments about “this new thing called Facebook” and the digital chaos I saw coming. I wasn’t wrong. I built the world’s first consultancy solely focused on social media safe use and risk management.
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But in 2013, that chaos hit me personally. At 43, I became the target of a calculated, brutal campaign of cyberbullying. My abuser wasn’t anonymous. It was someone I trusted. They mocked me, impersonated me, and tried to destroy my life. The emotional toll over 2yrs pushed me to check my life insurance. But instead I found my purpose and fought back with a mission.
In March 2014, I founded Safe on Social from my home office in Byron Bay, Australia. I was determined to turn my trauma into a toolkit, so no one else would ever feel what I felt....Not on my watch.
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Since then, I’ve worked with more than 1,200 organisations—from tiny rural schools with nine students to elite universities, global brands, law enforcement, and professional sporting teams. I led the first large-scale social media audit across 12,000+ staff for a state government health network and then across 56 schools in an Australian education system (now expanded across 200+ schools) and created frameworks still used internationally.
I launched Australia's first Youth Advisory Council for Online Safety in 2019—because I believe young people need to be in the room where the decisions about their digital lives are being made.
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Now based in Florence, Italy, I am the Co_Founder of Ctrl+Shft and travel globally while staying deeply connected to my roots—spending extended blocks each year on the ground in Australia, speaking face-to-face with thousands of students, educators, parents, and executives.
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