The Lafayette County Sheriff's Office is urging social media users to review their friends and followers, noting that not everyone who follows them online needs access to their lives.
The guidance recommends considering whether users know a person in real life, feel comfortable with that person seeing their posts, or find the person’s content uncomfortable or unsafe. Users are also encouraged to consider whether it is time to unfollow, block or remove someone.
NetSmartz, a program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, recommends knowing your friends, contacts and followers, using privacy settings, and removing people you don’t know or trust.
The message reminds users that they control who has access to their online world and advises, “When in doubt, don’t follow.” Additional online safety resources are available through the LCSO App and NetSmartz.
Jon Ross Myers founded Mississippi News Group in 2013. Before founding the organization, he worked at The Daily Mississippian, The Marion Salute and The Southern Sentinel. A Mississippi journalist and writer based in Ripley, he received second place in poetry in the 2025 William Faulkner Literary Competition for "The Garden."
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