Use and safety of social networking sites

This Bachelor thesis focuses on the use of social networking sites and their security. The aim of the presented thesis is to reveal the positives and negatives associated with the use of social networking sites for private purposes, and to find out which age group has the highest tendency to succumb to fraud carried out in the social networking environment. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with a description and analysis of the most used social networking sites, a general analysis of the positives and negatives of using social networking sites, the division of particular platforms, and statistics of their use. Moreover, the use of social networking sites was analyzed from a creator’s point of view, as well as in relation to the published content. In order to achieve the set objectives, the following methods are used in the methodology: research, analysis of social network usage statistics, comparative method, questionnaire survey, guided interviews and observation. The author summarizes the positives and negatives of using social networking sites that emerged from the data collected. In the practical part, the following hypotheses were confirmed: the majority of female respondents often exceed the set daily time limit for using social networking sites and the most used social networking site by respondents over 46 years of age for reconnecting with another person is Facebook. This hypothesis was refuted: respondents in the 18–29 age group are the most frequent victims of social networking site fraud.