30+
Years Experience
1200+
Organisations Advised
19
Countries
1
Mission
Kirra Pendergast helps leaders move beyond isolated incidents to recognise the patterns behind digital harm, shifting from reaction to foresight, and from anxiety to evidence-based action. This is not more noise about online risk. It is the language, clarity and strategy leaders need to finally understand it and act with impact.
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Thirty-five years in the field — from internet infrastructure and cyber security to online safety and AI digital governance.
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Founder of Safe on Social and Ctrl+Shft
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Trusted counsel to governments, regulators, law enforcement, schools and boards across nineteen countries.
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Architect of safeguarding-by-design and human-safety-centred governance frameworks.
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School online crisis management specialist — guiding school leaders, police and parents through the moment technology and harm collide.
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Adviser to the Australian Government's Age Assurance Technology Trial.
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Co-author, with Maggie Dent, of Digital Freedom (Macmillan Australia, 2026).
Based in Florence, with offices in London, Washington, New York and Sydney — and a genuinely global view of the AI regulation, online safety and children's privacy challenges now landing on every leader's desk.
Follow Kirra:
Digital Freedom: A guide to less screen time for safer, happier and healthier families
In this book, Maggie Dent and Kirra Pendergast present
no-nonsense advice for parents on issues such as:
- When and how to give your kids a smart phone?
- How do algorithms, digital footprints and AI really work?
- How can families use social media without sacrificing privacy and safety?
- How can you protect your kids and teens from the darker influences of the internet?
- What do you do if your child is being bullied or exploited online?
- How can you reduce family tension around screen use?
Digital Freedom cuts through the confusion and delivers practical tools and expert advice to help parents manage their family's device use and rediscover moments of screen-free connection and creativity.
Coming 18 August
Smart tech.
Safer kids.
Trusted by schools, businesses and governments across nineteen continents.
INTERNATIONAL KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Kirra's keynotes trace the forces shaping our digital future — and what they mean for the organisations, families and communities who have to live inside it. She does not trade in fear. She trades in clarity.
Drawing on more than three decades at the frontline before the frontline, she takes the hardest, most tangled issues of the moment and makes them plain — giving every audience something it can grasp in the room and act on the moment it leaves. No jargon. No doom. Just the truth about what's happening, and what to do with it.
People walk away with the rarest thing in a world that refuses to sit still, a clear head about what's coming, and the confidence to move on it now.
FOBISIA Safeguarding Conference - Kellett School - Hong Kong - May 2026
"Kirra has a rare ability to translate the most complex digital safety issues into actionable insight. Her keynote left our leadership team genuinely changed in how they think about human online risk."
Chief Risk Officer — Global Financial Institution, London
KEYNOTE TOPICS
Talks that cut through the noise.
AI & THE HUMAN EQUATION
What artificial intelligence actually means for the organisations, families and individuals navigating it — beyond the hype and the fear. Practical, grounded, and relevant to everyone in the room regardless of their technical background.
RAISING CHILDREN IN THE DIGITAL AGE
A keynote for parent communities, school faculties and family-focused organisations. Practical, evidence-based and deeply human — covering gaming, social media, AI, screen time, and how to have the conversations that matter.
ONLINE SAFETY IN 2026 AND BEYOND
From sexual extortion and cyberbullying to algorithm-driven radicalisation and AI-generated content — the landscape has changed dramatically. What leaders and organisations need to know, and what they can actually do about it.
THE FUTURE OF SAFETY GOVERNANCE
For boards, regulators and senior leadership. How digital safety is evolving as a governance and compliance issue — and what forward-thinking organisations are already doing differently. Includes the EU AI Act and European legislative context.
LEADERSHIP IN DIGITAL CHAOS
The organisations that will win in the next decade are the ones that understand the relationship between digital risk and public trust. Kirra shows audiences how to see risk clearly and act on it with confidence.
CUSTOM & BESPOKE TOPICS
Kirra works with event organisers to develop tailored keynotes for specific industries, audiences or strategic contexts. If your challenge is real and urgent, there is a talk that meets it exactly where it needs to be met.