diff --git a/swift/common/middleware/s3api/etree.py b/swift/common/middleware/s3api/etree.py
index 29adbc38ed..987b84a144 100644
--- a/swift/common/middleware/s3api/etree.py
+++ b/swift/common/middleware/s3api/etree.py
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ def tostring(tree, use_s3ns=True, xml_declaration=True):
 
         root = Element(tree.tag, attrib=tree.attrib, nsmap=nsmap)
         root.text = tree.text
-        root.extend(deepcopy(tree.getchildren()))
+        root.extend(deepcopy(list(tree)))
         tree = root
 
     return lxml.etree.tostring(tree, xml_declaration=xml_declaration,
diff --git a/test/functional/s3api/test_versioning.py b/test/functional/s3api/test_versioning.py
index bbbb72a70b..bd80a95809 100644
--- a/test/functional/s3api/test_versioning.py
+++ b/test/functional/s3api/test_versioning.py
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ class TestS3ApiVersioning(S3ApiBase):
             'GET', 'bucket', query='versioning')
         self.assertEqual(status, 200)
         elem = fromstring(body)
-        self.assertEqual(elem.getchildren(), [])
+        self.assertEqual(list(elem), [])
 
         # Enable versioning
         elem = Element('VersioningConfiguration')
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ class TestS3ApiVersioning(S3ApiBase):
             'GET', 'bucket', query='versioning')
         self.assertEqual(status, 200)
         elem = fromstring(body)
-        self.assertEqual(elem.getchildren(), [])
+        self.assertEqual(list(elem), [])
 
         # Suspend versioning
         elem = Element('VersioningConfiguration')
diff --git a/test/unit/common/middleware/s3api/test_versioning.py b/test/unit/common/middleware/s3api/test_versioning.py
index 33acd82b3c..ed485b9133 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/middleware/s3api/test_versioning.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/middleware/s3api/test_versioning.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ class TestS3ApiVersioning(S3ApiTestCase):
         status, headers, body = self._versioning_GET(path)
         self.assertEqual(status.split()[0], '200')
         elem = fromstring(body, 'VersioningConfiguration')
-        self.assertEqual(elem.getchildren(), [])
+        self.assertEqual(list(elem), [])
 
     def _versioning_GET_enabled(self, path):
         self.swift.register('HEAD', '/v1/AUTH_test/bucket', HTTPNoContent, {