Censorship explanation

[MCDaveG]

It's simple, Dragon Ball series aired on TV for 10 years, so if you were 8 year in 1986, you were 18 in 1996. In long time running series, creators aware about aging of series' main audience, so the content in the series progresses as well and also series takes different broadcast times in TV time schedule.

Because Kai is primary meant for new audience, kids, there is more censoring and editing on original content because the audience before was cca 12 years old in the beginning of Dragon Ball Z. The new audience is probably a lot younger.

[DemonRin]

It's pretty much because Fuji TV (The channel that broadcasts the show) has changed their standards in the several years since the original broadcast. For example, Several people flip the middle finger in DBZ from time to time, like ReaCoom or No. 17.
Meanwhile, lately in One Piece, a character named Trafalgar Law flipped the middle finger in the manga. This scene was taken out of the anime.

Add that to the fact that Toei Added some blood where there was none or little in the manga, and you have the reason. (For example, the death of Son and Raditz originally had a BIT of blood, not much but a bit. Which would make sense when you realize the attack is a searing lazer beam. Anyway, the original version of DBZ added buckets of blood to that scene that weren't there originally.

[Hujio]

It's simple, Dragon Ball series aired on TV for 10 years, so if you were 8 year in 1986, you were 18 in 1996. In long time running series, creators aware about aging of series' main audience, so the content in the series progresses as well and also series takes different broadcast times in TV time schedule.

Well first off, the series never changed its broadcast time slot. It aired every Wednesday night from 7:00 to 7:30 on Fuji TV, with a few exceptions here and there. Anyway, I don't think the content change had much to do with an audience change at all, but more-so because over 10 years the author changed. I is a grueling task to write a manga series for ten straight years, non-stop. And DragonBall is known nationally in Japan, by kids, teens, and adults. At the time it was broadcast, everyone was watching it, not just little kids.

Because Kai is primary meant for new audience, kids, there is more censoring and editing on original content because the audience before was cca 12 years old in the beginning of Dragon Ball Z. The new audience is probably a lot younger.

I would venture to guess that Kai has a slightly younger audience, but only because it airs on Sunday mornings, which is equivalent to Saturday morning kids cartoons here in America. However, with this internet thing, many older teens and young adults are downloading it in Japan. So they're just as involved and possibly interested as the younger audience.

Overall, the censorship change has more to do with Fuji TV's standards changing over time. They've become much more "westernized" and followed the U.S.'s footsteps in being more uptight about the little things. My only other thought is, if you consider this a new series, then is it really censorship? Also, if you're only watching the show just to see someone flip the bird or see blood gushing out of someone, then anything DragonBall isn't for you. Overall, there's not much of that in show. Fans seem to really blow the series gore way out of proportion, trying to make DragonBall Z way more hardcore than it really is.