On the current season of MTV’s reality series “The Real World,” Maine’s Adam Royer has been seen romancing a female roommate, getting drunk and loud, and being thrown out of public places.

For Royer’s parents, Michael and Hilde Royer of Falmouth, the spectacle has been both exciting and hard to watch. Hard to watch because, as Michael Royer says, “There are some things that parents don’t want to see their children do, and Adam is doing a lot of those.”

But they’re excited because they think the experience of seeing himself on TV has helped their 22-year-old son grow as a person.

And they’ve seen him move on from mistakes in the past.

Royer served three years in the state’s Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland after being involved in a drug-related home invasion in Buxton in 2005, when he was 16.

After serving his sentence, he attended and graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a double major in political science and criminology.

“Adam will say it himself: He has to learn the hard way, and that is the hardest thing to watch,” Hilde Royer said. “I also have to try to watch the show as a spectator and not a parent, putting into perspective that the producers are piecing together the moments that will create the most TV drama and entertainment.”

Royer says he’s thoroughly enjoying his time as a reality TV celebrity and has watched some of the episodes more than once. The experience has made him think about a career in entertainment.

He used to think he would go to law school, become a lawyer and help youths who are drawn to trouble and violence, as he was. Now, he thinks he might be able to help youngsters even more by pursuing an entertainment career.

“I realized, with this opportunity, there was a great chance to help kids, because they look up to me,” Royer said in a phone interview. “I loved being on camera, meeting everyone.”

While Long Creek officials won’t confirm or deny that Royer served time there, Royer says the place “turned my life around.” And while police and prosecutors won’t talk about his record because he was a juvenile, his description of what he was arrested for matches newspaper accounts published at the time.

On May 6, 2005, six people, all younger than 21, stormed into a farmhouse in Buxton with guns in an attempt to steal marijuana from the home’s occupant. One of the intruders, Virgil Buzzell, shot and wounded the home’s occupant.

Buzzell, then 20, pleaded guilty to drug and gun charges and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison.

Royer says he was with the group that stormed in, and was arrested on drug and gun charges. Others involved were sentenced to prison or youth detention as well.

Royer said he has talked about his criminal record with other “Real World” participants and MTV, but didn’t “go into a lot of detail.”

This season of “The Real World” began airing March 9, and new episodes are scheduled to run into June. The episodes air on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

Royer admits that while he was being filmed — shooting occurred from October through December in Las Vegas — he “made some mistakes,” including getting drunk and smashing a liquor bottle on the ground when some nightclub bouncers asked him to leave.

The show, one of the originals in the reality TV genre, puts seven strangers together in a house for several weeks and records virtually every move they make.

Royer tried out for “The Real World” at an open audition in Portland, where he and a friend cut in line and created “a whole bunch of drama.” That might have helped him make the cut, but Royer said it wasn’t staged.

“That’s my personality. That’s who I am,” he said.

Royer was seen recently at a Maine Red Claws basketball game in Portland with another reality star — Deena Nicole Cortese of MTV’s “Jersey Shore.”

Royer said they met at an MTV premiere party, but he wouldn’t say whether they are dating.

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:

rrouthier@pressherald.com