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Much ado about nothing.
I'll have a say for the defence since no one else has yet.
First, who is anyone to say that this book should only be for children? A book is for anyone who wants to read it. Penguin Modern Classics seem aimed at a more mature audience, one who is either studying the work or otherwise reading it to analyse or to familiarise themselves with "classics". There have been other children's books with this status, one of the most famous being Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
As to the pearl-clutching claims of an overly sexualised girl on the cover and vague comments about Child Protective Services and paedophilia, in my opinion it's the same as a room full of elephants making a huge uproar over a mouse scurrying around. There is a "law" about Hitler always eventually being invoked in internet discussion; I would put forth that paedophilia could be added to that list as well.
The girl is basically completely covered and we can only see a bit of her lower legs on the bottom of the cover. She is dressed like a girl doll or a beauty pageant girl - both well accepted in our culture even for her age (and, by the way, the image as styled is nothing like Lolita in the Nabukov book so those comparisons are way off mark).
That doesn't mean the image isn't somewhat dark, or even creepy (not only the girl but also the prominent shadow of the mother by the girl), but that was the intention as the publishers have stated. This edition is for more mature readers studying a classic. Most covers of this book only allude to a cartoonish happiness, but to be sure the book definitely has dark elements, which were shown in different ways in both film adaptations as well. This cover is obviously intended to make the reader think about the darkness of the book, or the darkness vs the lightness, more than other covers might, and I think it succeeds at that, and frankly I am happy a publisher tried something different and risky.
I do think the publishers are lying about one point though - I do think this image, or the inspiration to use this image anyway, was based on Veruca Salt. The image was culled from an, I think, unrelated fashion shoot, but the girl certainly could be a twisted and stylised photographer's interpretation of Veruca and I think that's what the publishers saw. I have seen many other books, including many classics, with covers not directly related to the book, usually instead being a painting or photograph that somehow evokes some aspect of the book. This book is no different and I think the cover evokes in particular Veruca but more generally children as a product of their environment and their guardians, which is shown in extremes in the book and on this cover.
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