Wow.. Hmm, I'm not sure where I stand on this. For one, I think the kid probably had a really good imagination and him and the friends were playing. I have no idea whether or not Naruto really played any kind of role in this whatsoever, but everyone loves a scapegoat and I bet the kid did watch it one day while his mother or father was in the room and they were at some episode with Gaara in it, so when this happens, that's what they chose to blame it on.
But really, I read the article and watched the news clip, in both the mention of Naruto isn't very big. It's more like, "Oh we think it was because he was watching Naruto" and then that's it. Oh, also, did anyone else actually watch the news clip? lol "The show is called 'Naruto Sand Ninjas'" What the fuck? XD They could at least get the name right.
Also, I dunno, but 10 years old isn't really that old. Hell I remember having one hell of an imagination when I played with my friends at age 10. Maybe kids grow up a little faster these days, but a child's imagination is a pretty wonderful thing. I mean, who hasn't done some stupid things when they were a kid? Who doesn't still do stupid things that you think are cool at the time? Really now. It's just unfortunate for this kid that.. well he had a bad idea.
You can't really call this kid stupid, he was being a kid.. granted the idea to us doesn't seem very bright, but that's because we know better and we're older. There are kids that were really big into Superman growing up or (insert other flying heroes/characters here) that have tried jumping off a roof to fly, seriously, it's happened more than you might think. Why? Because your imagination makes you think that maybe you could do it too, because you want to be like that person.
When I was 10 I played soccer and was pretty fast, me and all my friends at the time would always watch saturday morning cartoons. One I remember was Sonic the Hedgehog (you know, with Sally, Tails, the rabbit girl, wussy fox guy) and me and my best friend at the time would sometimes just run around in his back yard. I'd wear blue sweats and pretend to be Sonic, I'm not making this up. That's just what an active imagination can have kid's doing for fun.
I don't blame the kid for his imagination, really when it comes down to it, it was just a very unfortunate outcome. Had he have been pulled out when he was thrashing he probably would have been just fine, and just suffered a good scare and probably would have learned never to try that again.