More than just upsetting to viewers, the messaging of Snuffleupagus was leading to kids thinking that adults wouldn’t believe them if they were being harmed:

The fear was that if we represented adults not believing what kids said, they might not be motivated to tell the truth. That caused us to rethink the storyline: Is something we’ve been doing for 14 years—that seemed innocent enough—now something that’s become harmful?

smithsonianmag.com/…/brief-history-sesame-streets…