Peta Estens | PhD student
Pangaea Minds

Peta is an award-winning researcher, digital designer and technology training specialist. She is a recipient of an Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Elevate Scholarship and a Ph.D. student at Deakin University. In 2021 Peta graduated with a Master of Visualisation, Simulation and Immersive Design from UNSW with the Dean’s Prize for Academic Excellence. This research catalysed her strong interest in ethics, regulation, and governance specific to XR technologies, including the metaverse. Peta recently graduated with a Certificate of Cyber Law at Deakin University with more questions than answers. Her current research explores how existing cybersecurity policies and strategies expose industry and consumers to violations of Human Rights. Peta's research considers how immersive technologies rely on tracking and tracing the user’s sensory system to be operational, exposing XR participants to the risk of biometric data harvesting. With over 20 years' experience as a Secondary English teacher, Peta is an advocate for introducing 'data literacy' as a Primary and Secondary School cross-curriculum priority. As cybersecurity is Australia’s greatest threat, we need to empower the next generation to understand how data impacts the construction of identity, affects a sense of belonging to the community, and determines one's participation in wider society.