What digital protections did the kid circumvent? As far as I can tell he just dumped the game's graphics and found a previously unknown creature among the results. No circumvention of anything whatsoever, just direct access to the data.
If the corporations don't want stuff like this to be found, they should try not putting it into the game in the first place. I guess copyright monopolists who are delusional enough to believe they can publish information world wide and control what happens to it do not have this sort of common sense.
For the record, there's an entire website full of people dedicated to doing what that child did: