My first thought: ah sweet.
My second thought: If I was the guy, how would I feel if I found out my 'friends' were actually just people being paid to spend time with me?
Kinda reminds me of when I was younger, I was in some housing project, and I used to have casual chats every now and then with the project worker. I found later that she was logging her time talking with me as part of her paid working hours. All above board - it was part of her contract to spend time talking to people - but it put a different light in retrospect on our casual conversations.
Never mind the nit-picking, I do appreciate what the son is doing, and I'd say the end justifies the means, just makes me squirm a little, but that's modern life.