Kirra Pendergast is a proud Australian from Byron Bay in Northern New South Wales, now based in Florence, Italy, with offices in Sydney, London, New York and Washington DC.

She is a globally recognised digital trust, safety and governance strategist whose consulting career spans more than three decades at the forefront of technological transformation.
 

Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on digital safety, behavioural risk intelligence and digital platform governance, Kirra has built a career that bridges deep technical expertise with public policy, child rights, organisational governance, human-centred systems design and most importantly live experience.
 

Throughout her career, Kirra has remained fiercely independent. She has never worked for, been employed by, or accepted funding from Big Tech platforms, allowing her to provide impartial, evidence-based advice to governments, regulators, educators, businesses and international organisations without commercial influence or competing interests.
 

She is the Founder and Chief Strategist of Safe on Social, the world’s largest independent digital safety education and governance organisation, and Ctrl+Shft, a next-generation behavioural risk intelligence operating system that helps organisations identify, measure and govern human digital risk, online safety and AI across their workforce, communities and operations.
 

Kirra advises governments, regulators, multinational corporations, law firms, education systems, sporting organisations, critical infrastructure providers and international agencies on navigating the complex challenges created by social media, artificial intelligence, emerging technologies and increasingly interconnected digital ecosystems.
 

Kirra’s work begins long before incidents become public. She is frequently called upon to identify emerging risks, investigate complex online harms, manage high-profile digital crises and strengthen governance before reputational, legal or human harm occurs. Her work is described as operating “on the frontline before the frontline” helping organisations anticipate, prevent and respond to digital harm before it escalates into national headlines.
 

Her perspective is shaped not only by decades of technical and governance experience, but also by lived experience. After becoming the target of sustained technology-facilitated abuse, cyber harassment and reputational attacks herself, Kirra experienced first-hand the devastating human impact of online harm and the shortcomings of existing reporting systems, organisational responses and platform accountability. Rather than allowing that experience to define her, she transformed it into a global mission to create safer digital environments through education, governance, evidence-based intervention and systems reform. That rare combination of lived experience and technical expertise continues to inform every aspect of her work.