Hi friends, your tech Thursday is here! You know how we start this party — trivia. What was the first video game to feature a save function, allowing players to pick up where they left off? Was it … A.) Super Mario Bros., B.) The Legend of Zelda, C.) Final Fantasy or D.) Tetris? You’ll find the answer at the end. Bonus points if you know the year, too!

❓ Need help? I’ve got your back. Drop me your question here. We can talk on my national radio show, or maybe I’ll answer it in a newsletter. Now, on to your daily dose of tech smarts! — Kim

When I saw this malware report, I wanted to pass it along because hackers and scammers are no longer just going after adults. They've got a huge pot of gold for anyone searching online for “Sonic the Hedgehog,” Taylor Swift or "The Boss Baby."

Innocent searches for movies, shows and celebrities are turning up awful results. A new study found the most common search terms to infect kids' devices with malware. I admit even I was surprised by some of these.

Malware on film

What could go wrong when your kid searches for their favorite movie? Apparently, a lot. Even the search results for animated movies are a hot mess.

Home Security Heroes found over half of the search results for "The Boss Baby," "Transylvania 2" and "Sonic the Hedgehog" could contain malware. I'm willing to bet many of those lead to illegal download sites, just waiting to infect any device that comes its way.

TV shows are dicey, too: 47% of Google searches related to the "Pokémon" animated series raised a malware red flag. Searches for "Young Justice" and "Monster," a Japanese anime series, also had risky results of up to 45%.

The dark side of Hollywood

If your kids are searching for Anne Hathaway, Kaley Cuoco or Melissa McCarthy, you might want to supervise. Results for these lovely ladies had a jaw-dropping 75% chance of malware. I'll let you guess who creeps are targeting here.

The most dangerous male actor to search for is (drumroll) Chris Hemsworth. If only Thor's hammer was strong enough to send malware into another dimension … Neil Patrick Harris and Chris Pine were the second and third most dangerous searches, respectively.

Shake it off

If you or your kids are Swifties, beware: A crazy 79% of searches for Taylor Swift contained potential malware. Searches for Ariana Grande and the Aussie-based band 5 Seconds of Summer also turned up tons of suspicious results. Duly noted.

Your to-do list

We can't protect our kids from everything on the internet, but we can do a lot to help prevent sticky situations.

• Enable safer searching: Google, Bing and Yahoo can filter explicit or potentially harmful content from search results — not just text, but also images, videos and websites.
  • Google: On your device, go to your SafeSearch setting. Select Filter, Blur or Off.
  • Bing: From Bing.com, select the menu icon in the upper right > Settings > More. Choose your SafeSearch preference: Strict, Moderate or Off. Select Save at the bottom of the menu.
  • Yahoo: Go to Yahoo Search and make sure you're signed in. From a search results page, click the app icon > Settings > Preferences. Select your SafeSearch preference from the dropdown menu.
• Parental controls: Enable them on your smartphones, laptops, iPads and kids' smart devices. Older kids can likely get around them. (That’s part of the reason I like the Bark Phone* — their controls are built in and tamper-proof.)
• Talk to the kids: They don't want malware on their devices (that means no more video games or social media), so share info like this to help them make better decisions.

✅ More than anything, keep communication clear. I always did this with Ian. He knew if he saw something weird online, had a conversation that made him uncomfortable or anything else, it was safe to tell me.

You’re not still falling for this ploy, right? Hackers are posting ads featuring blurry pictures of naked women. Their target? Men age 45 and older. About 100,000 victims have clicked the misleading Facebook ads and downloaded NodeStealer malware, giving hackers access to their credit card details. Don’t be a dummy.

🏛️ Politics as usual: In the past five years, Congress has held 39 hearings on how dangerous social media is to our kids. Any guesses how many laws have been passed to fix it? That’d be a big fat zero. We all know Big Tech won’t do anything until they’re forced to.

The chatbot will see you now: This is incredible. Compared to human doctors, AI can better judge how aggressive some types of cancer are just by looking at a CT scan. For some patients, this means no more expensive and invasive biopsies. AI can’t do the job alone, but it sure can help docs make better-informed decisions.

🖥️ Wonky Windows: I hate when this happens. The latest Windows 11 update is making it impossible to play games like Fortnite and Horizon Zero. Others said the update installation process doesn't even work. If you haven't downloaded KB5031455 yet, wait till Microsoft sorts this out. I’ll let you know when it’s safe.

It all went downhill after my hamster died: A new term has entered the dating lexicon — premature intimacy, or PMI. Like TMI, it refers to people oversharing on the first date or escalating a relationship too quickly. People want to share their true selves with potential partners. But please save the childhood trauma for at least the fifth date.

No tip? Cold dip: Order from DoorDash? Soon, you’ll see a pop-up if you don’t tip, and your food will take longer to arrive. Makes sense — drivers will prioritize more generous customers. If you pay $48 for lunch, you ought to chip in a few bucks for the delivery driver.

📺 Clever streaming tip: Paying for the ad-supported plan on Netflix? Here’s a workaround to skip some commercials. You won’t see ads on the fourth episode of a series if you watched the previous three back-to-back-to-back. Now, grab some popcorn and settle in.

I’d like to thank my programmer: In news that will shock no one, Collins Dictionary named “AI” its 2023 Word of the Year. Two others on the shortlist: “Greedflation,” which describes companies driving up prices more than necessary to keep up with inflation costs, and “nepo baby,” a person whose success is only because of their famous parent(s).

Daylight saving time ends this Sunday. Enjoy the extra hour of sleep — and a little dose of confusion. Here’s a quick checklist to limit that second one.

• Most smartphones, computers and smart home devices auto-update the time. But for older tech like microwaves or car clocks, you still have to do it the old-fashioned way.
• Check your scheduling apps, like Google Calendar, Outlook or Calendly. A quick review could save you from showing up to a meeting an hour early.
• Review automated actions for lighting, heating or even your smart sprinklers. Does the time still make sense?

While you're at it, check the batteries in your home's smoke detectors. The time change won't impact that — I just want to keep you safe by maintaining a schedule.

☀️ They always say daylight saving is such a great idea. I give it six months.

I make the complex world of tech simple and approachable. From explaining the latest gadgets in plain English to offering easy-to-follow cybersecurity advice, I’ve got you covered.

Choose your platform below to listen:

😀 You’ll love this: Starting today, Android folks can try Google’s Credential Manager. Notice I didn’t say “password.” It uses passkeys, so you rely on a PIN, fingerprint or your face to log into your apps and accounts. All the dorky details are here if you’re interested.

That was easy: Adobe has two new URLs for the next time you need to adjust a PDF or add your John Hancock: edit.ing and sign.ing. Yep, those are real URLs — Google just released the .ing domain.

🎾 Hit the court: Pickleball is all the rage, and new research shows it’s dang good for you, too. Apple’s Heart and Movement Study analyzed Apple Watch data and found the average game is 90 minutes, gets the heart rate up and is a huge mood boost. Whoa, pickleball is kind of a big dill.

Where was this when my kid was taking calculus? Google can tackle complex math problems now. Just snap a pic of a calculus, trigonometry or even physics question, and you’ll get step-by-step directions to solve it. You can upload a picture right to Google Search or use the Google Lens app.

Skip in 3 ... 2 … 1: YouTube isn't playing around. It started with a friendly warning that it'd really rather you didn't use an ad blocker. Now, if you have one enabled, you can't watch videos at all. YouTube says it's against the site's terms of service — aka how they make money.

Don’t lose all your photos, videos, documents and memories if yours bites the dust. You need to back things up the right way. My pick is IDrive.

It’s safe, fast and easy. You can back up all your devices — iPhone, Android, Mac, PC — to one account and access your stuff from anywhere.

Faith-palm!

The answer: B.) The Legend of Zelda, released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), introduced the ability to save your game progress. You know, I broke up with my video game console, and now, it's my Xbox. Nothing personal. It was just time for a Switch.

🎧 Need some company on a walk, drive or doing chores? I’m here for you. Check out my free podcasts. They’re packed with the same fun and informative tech vibes for on the go. But it’s not the same content as the newsletters. Hit “Play” and let's keep exploring the tech universe together! — Kim