Being Zac Efron: A Social Experiment Yields Troubling Results

Like most 23-year-olds, I have a MySpace page. Like most MySpace users, I frequently change my profile out of boredom. It was this state of roving restlessness that moved me to change my display name to Zac Efron. My friends found it to be amusing, so I went the extra mile and slapped a picture of Smiley Tween (not to be confused with Sweeney Todd) on my page. Little did I know that I would soon become Zac Efron in the eyes of his adoring fans.

It wasn't long before I started receiving friend requests from teen-aged girls. I accepted the requests for a chuckle, assuming that they would delete me once they viewed my actual profile. At the time, I had a brutal death metal song blasting from my "space." I had also recently posted a few personal blogs that asseverated my struggles with depression and my ephemeral thoughts of suicide. Oh, and "HAIL SATAN!" was stamped above the list of my top friends. Clearly, this was not Zac Efron's MySpace page.

To my utter shock, my new "friends" began sending me messages. They were still under the impression that I was Zac Efron. That's when I realized that I had inadvertently created the perfect environment for a social experiment. How far could I go before someone called me out? I didn't have to try very hard to attract friend requests. They arrived in my inbox by the truckload. One day, I had amassed over 50 friend requests. I accepted all of them, and my true friends were more than happy to get in on the action.

At first, the whole charade was deliriously entertaining. These kids thought that befriending a celebrity would be relatively easy. Each and every one of them begged me to write them back. The party didn't last very long, as my experiment developed a disturbing trend. 10-year-olds posing as teenagers were beginning to contact me. One child (I can't stress that term enough) left flirtatious comments on my profile. They were amorous in an uncomfortable way, and I deleted them immediately. One girl sent me her phone number right off the bat.

Meanwhile, I had continued to make my profile as ridiculous as possible. I posted offensive blogs that wound up angering a few of my actual friends. Of course, my intention was not to stir controversy, but to shake some sense into Mr. Efron's devotees. It didn't work. No matter how much cold water I tossed onto these kids, they never flinched. I had convinced 100 people that I was Zac Efron. What's more, I received friend requests from folks calling themselves Vanessa and - you guessed it - Zac. I don't know if the real Zac Efron ever stumbled onto my page, but I suppose not since I was never contacted by his legal team or his publicist.

It's no wonder that so many children are abducted, raped, and murdered by strangers they meet on the Internet. Where in the hell were these kids' parents when they had the time and the privacy to reach out to Zac Efron? I could have easily persuaded someone's daughter to meet me in a parking lot. I could have easily brainwashed them into believing that I could turn them into stars. The scariest thing that I learned from this experiment is how little effort it takes to be a predator.

My mendacious mimicry lasted for a week. What started out as a joke mutated into a sobering undertaking that will indubitably affect the way I parent my children. A private profile IS NOT an infallible safety measure. Most parents think that they have every base covered, but take it from a younger guy who is attuned to the mentality of the YouTube generation; you don't have every base covered. Don't strip privileges away from your child, as that will only foster a sense of rebellion. Work with them to keep them safe. They will listen.

This would be a fantastic opportunity to plug a similarly-themed article I wrote a while back. Click HERE to read about a warped form of pornography that your teen may be familiar with.