
Kirra Pendergast - Cyber Bully Survivor, Savaged to Breaking Point, is Now Saving our Kids on Social
Explicit content warning
06/02/21 • 75 min
If you’re a parent, pulling your proverbial hair out at the life force that is social media – you really don’t want to go anywhere for the next hour.
My next guest, Kirra Pendergast, will tell you exactly like it is; she won’t pull any punches; she won’t sugar coat a thing; but she also won’t make you feel like a lousy, negligent parent for not knowing more than your kids do. And believe me, when it comes to the world of social media, they know more than you ever will.
So now the “why”? Where does Kirra’s wisdom come from? Is it because she once was a high-flying cyber-security expert at the top of her game? Well sure. But that’s not the whole story.
Because being a cyber expert didn’t stop Kirra from being cyber bullied so malevolently by an ex-business associate that it very nearly cost her, her life.
After a two-and half-year smear campaign, Kirra reached breaking point. She found herself sitting in her car, having the “worst kind of thoughts you could possibly have.”
Kirra’s attempt to seek justice against her abuser all but wiped out her bank accounts and by the time she found herself alone in that car thinking the gravest thoughts, she had $68 to her name.
But it’s what she did with that $68 that might just spare our children from not only the horrors she’s endured, but will empower parents to protect their kids in a way that actually works.
Kirra’s the oh so cool, straight talking auntie your kids need to keep them safe on social.
BUT BEFORE YOU GO...
Find out more about Kirra here
Find out more about the Safe on Social Toolkit for schools & parents here
Follow Kirra on Twitter
Follow Kirra on Insta
Resource for parents from the eSafety Commissioner about having “hard to have conversations” with kids here
Find out more about Tam here
Follow Tam on Insta
Follow BRAVE JOURNEYS on Insta
Join the conversation and chat about the episode here
NEED MORE INSPIRATION?
Find other BRAVE JOURNEYS episodes here
CREDITS:
Creator, Host & Executive Producer: Tammi Faraday
With thanks to my special guest: Kirra Pendergast
Audio Editor: Zoltan Fecso
With very special thanks to George Weinberg.
BRAVE JOURNEYS acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we record this podcast on, the Yaluk-ut Weelam Clan of the Boon Wurrung who are part of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respect to their Elders, both past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
If you’re a parent, pulling your proverbial hair out at the life force that is social media – you really don’t want to go anywhere for the next hour.
My next guest, Kirra Pendergast, will tell you exactly like it is; she won’t pull any punches; she won’t sugar coat a thing; but she also won’t make you feel like a lousy, negligent parent for not knowing more than your kids do. And believe me, when it comes to the world of social media, they know more than you ever will.
So now the “why”? Where does Kirra’s wisdom come from? Is it because she once was a high-flying cyber-security expert at the top of her game? Well sure. But that’s not the whole story.
Because being a cyber expert didn’t stop Kirra from being cyber bullied so malevolently by an ex-business associate that it very nearly cost her, her life.
After a two-and half-year smear campaign, Kirra reached breaking point. She found herself sitting in her car, having the “worst kind of thoughts you could possibly have.”
Kirra’s attempt to seek justice against her abuser all but wiped out her bank accounts and by the time she found herself alone in that car thinking the gravest thoughts, she had $68 to her name.
But it’s what she did with that $68 that might just spare our children from not only the horrors she’s endured, but will empower parents to protect their kids in a way that actually works.
Kirra’s the oh so cool, straight talking auntie your kids need to keep them safe on social.
BUT BEFORE YOU GO...
Find out more about Kirra here
Find out more about the Safe on Social Toolkit for schools & parents here
Follow Kirra on Twitter
Follow Kirra on Insta
Resource for parents from the eSafety Commissioner about having “hard to have conversations” with kids here
Find out more about Tam here
Follow Tam on Insta
Follow BRAVE JOURNEYS on Insta
Join the conversation and chat about the episode here
NEED MORE INSPIRATION?
Find other BRAVE JOURNEYS episodes here
CREDITS:
Creator, Host & Executive Producer: Tammi Faraday
With thanks to my special guest: Kirra Pendergast
Audio Editor: Zoltan Fecso
With very special thanks to George Weinberg.
BRAVE JOURNEYS acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we record this podcast on, the Yaluk-ut Weelam Clan of the Boon Wurrung who are part of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respect to their Elders, both past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Previous Episode

Sabrina Butler Smith - Put on Death Row for a Crime She Didn’t Commit
Believe me when I say this is one of the most egregious cases of a miscarriage of justice you’ll ever hear.
SABRINA BUTLER SMITH’s story can only be described as your very worst nightmare. At 17, Sabrina was a young, single mother to two children including her beautiful baby boy, Walter. When Walter was nine months old, Sabrina came home after a jog and found him in his crib not breathing. After a frantic half an hour desperately seeking help from neighbours and applying the CPR she was instructed to give, Walter arrived in the emergency room, but the doctors were unable to revive him.
Instead of consoling the heartbroken teen mother, the doctors wrongly accused Sabrina of child abuse. And after a 4 hour brutal police interrogation, Sabrina was charged with murdering her baby boy. In March 1990, Sabrina was wrongfully convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
Six and a half excruciating years after her wrongful conviction, Sabrina was granted an appellate trial with the support of her new lawyer - my former guest, Clive Stafford Smith. During the appeal, it was found that Walter had tragically died from a genetic kidney disorder.
In 1995, Sabrina was the first woman ever in the history of the United States to be exonerated from Death Row.
The only thing that kept this remarkable young woman going was her faith and the knowledge of one thing: she was innocent.
They say the truth will set you free. But even for the exonerated, hell remains a place on earth.
This is Sabrina’s story ...
BUT BEFORE YOU GO...
Find out more about Sabrina here
Find out more about Witness to Innocence here
Watch “Kids Meet a Death Row Exoneree” here
Follow Sabrina Twitter
Follow Sabrina on Insta
Find out more about Tam here
Follow Tam on Insta
Follow BRAVE JOURNEYS on Insta
Join the conversation and chat about the episode here
NEED MORE INSPIRATION?
Find other BRAVE JOURNEYS episodes here
CREDITS:
Creator, Host & Executive Producer: Tammi Faraday
With thanks to my special guest: Sabrina Butler Smith
Audio Editor: Zoltan Fecso
With very special thanks to George Weinberg.
BRAVE JOURNEYS acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we record this podcast on, the Yaluk-ut Weelam Clan of the Boon Wurrung who are part of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respect to their Elders, both past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Next Episode

Jen Waite - Married to a Psychopath: My Husband’s Double Life
What happens when the love of your life — your husband, your best friend, the father of your 3 week old baby - who’s gorgeous, funny, tall, exotic, and wonderfully attentive; the person you’ve basically banked your whole life on, turns out to be a psychopath?
This was the agonising question facing my next guest - JEN WAITE – as captured flawlessly in her international best-selling memoir, A Beautiful Terrible Thing.
In today’s episode, Jen and I chat about her heartbreaking discoveries, every life-destroying lie, and what happens to a human being once they discover that the person they've built their entire life around, never really existed.
Jen’s is a shocking tale of betrayal, brokenness and rebuilding when the rug has been completely pulled out from under you.
This is Jen’s story ...
BUT BEFORE YOU GO...
Find out more about Jen here
Find out where to buy Jen’s incredible memoir, "A Beautiful Terrible Thing", here
Follow Jen on Twitter
Follow Jen on Insta
Find out more about Tam here
Follow Tam on Insta
Follow BRAVE JOURNEYS on Insta
Join the conversation and chat about the episode here
NEED MORE INSPIRATION?
Find other BRAVE JOURNEYS episodes here
CREDITS:
Creator, Host & Executive Producer: Tammi Faraday
With thanks to my special guest: Jen Waite
Audio Editor: Zoltan Fecso
With very special thanks to George Weinberg.
BRAVE JOURNEYS acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we record this podcast on, the Yaluk-ut Weelam Clan of the Boon Wurrung who are part of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respect to their Elders, both past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
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