RhealPoirier/Pears — comment on commit 93a67089b5c7192b52c05c0c2e9d8b4540ba6d4f
File:  line 0
By Mamaduka:

Sorry, for ``s WordPress provides function `esc_textarea()` - http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/esc_textarea and yes, instead of htmlspecialchars, `esc_textarea()` uses `htmlspecialchars()` and passes ENT_QUOTES as second parameter to encode double and single characters.

In general, it's better practice to use Data Validation API that WordPress provides, then generic PHP functions.