It's not exactly the same thing, but I've noticed similar kinds of edits in a couple of US children's books I've been able to compare. Some are easily explainable as political correctness or changing social mores, some might be explainable by the influence of helicopter parenting and increasing uptightness (e.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/27/opinion/halloween-kids-mo...), but others I can't make heads or tales of.
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