“Who has checked their privacy settings on Facebook within the past two months?” asked Krista Kobeski, a site integrity analyst at Facebook.

Out of the 14 individuals sitting in the room, only three raised their hands.

“That’s a problem,” said Kobeski.

This past Wednesday, the school district hosted an open Facebook forum at Menlo-Atherton High School. Kobeski ran the event, giving an overview of Facebook’s educational outreach, especially in relation to cyber bullying, and ended with taking questions and comments from students.

According to Kobeski, Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected.

“Everyone has access to information about movies, restaurants, bands, colleges, friends, and family. Facebook provides a real, personalized experience,” said Kobeski.

However, in such a vast and open online world, there are bound to be aspects of the site that remain hidden or that the public is unaware of.

“Because Facebook is always changing, sometimes people forget to check the new settings, especially the privacy settings,” said Kobeski.

She then spent the majority of the forum emphasizing how important it is for teens to check their privacy settings so that their content is not open to the public.

“The privacy settings are there to protect you, not to annoy you,” said Kobeski.

Kobeski also explained how when someone reports something on Facebook, it goes straight to a representative who will try to fix the problem within 24-72 hours of the initial reporting.

“All reports are completely anonymous,” Kobeski said. “The owner of the content you report will receive a message straight from a Facebook representative asking them to take down the abusive post.”

According to Kobeski, another Facebook feature that not a lot of people are aware of is the ability to report suicidal threats to Facebook.

“If you think that your friend may be suicidal or if someone you know is threatening via Facebook to kill themselves, you can report their behavior to Facebook,” she said.

After a representative receives this report, an anonymous message will then be sent to the potentially suicidal person alerting them that their friends are concerned about them and asks if they are alright or if they would like some help.

To report any suicidal content please click here.

This feature is a great way to make sure you can look out for your friends,” said Kobeski. “Better to be safe than sorry.”