He’s only in fifth grade but he is capable of breaking into government websites. A 12-year-old Canadian boy pleaded guilty to a slew of computer hacking charges in a Quebec court last week. He’s due to be sentenced next month and could become the world’s youngest convicted hacker.

According to The Toronto Sun, the young hacker was able to breach several government sites causing damage up to $60,000. There was no political motive, however, he had been offered video games in payment for his actions by 3rd parties (including members of the hacker collective Anonymous). He’s admitted to participating in DDoS attacks, website vandalism, and exploiting security holes on sites to access databases–and this led him to later post stolen information online in the name of the activist/hacktivist group Anonymous.

“He saw it as a challenge, he was only 12 years old,” his lawyer said. “There was no political purpose.”

Police investigating the case said the Grade 5 student from the Montreal suburb of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, has pleaded guilty to three charges related to the hacking of the websites, including those of Montreal police, the Quebec Institute of Public Health, Chilean government and some non-public sites.

Prosecutors also pointed out that the kid hacker shared this hacking information with others, reportedly with a warning: “It’s easy to hack but do not go there too much, they will track you down.”

Some sites have remained out of service for more than two days. The hacker, whose name cannot be published due to his age, told police he participated in activities of this kind since the age of nine, and has contributed to the breach of multiple sites and stolen information belonging to users and administrators.

Given his age, the boy may not face the full penalty of the law. However, this is not the first time that young boys are accused of crimes. In 2000, another 15 year old boy in Montreal, known as Mafiaboy, caused an estimated $1.7 billion of damage via hacking. He was sentenced to eight months in juvenile detention and subsequently received several job offers in computer security industry.

A recent report published by Mainichi Japan revealed that the number of cases of youths prosecuted for violating the Unauthorized Computer Access Law has jumped fourfold, up from 16 percent as compared to 2003. A record of 64 youths, aged between 11 and 19 were arrested for gaining unauthorized access to computers–accounted for 21 percent of all such crimes in 2003.