diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c6bba0033a..6658661b77 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -186,6 +186,9 @@ without arguments starts a full interactive Python console.
 - Fixes in multi-match situations - don't allow finding/listing multimatches for 3-box when
   only two boxes in location.
 - Fix for TaskHandler with proper deferred returns/ability to cancel etc (PR by davewiththenicehat)
+- Add `PermissionHandler.check` method for straight string perm-checks without needing lockstrings.
+- Add `evennia.utils.utils.strip_unsafe_input` for removing html/newlines/tags from user input. The
+  `INPUT_CLEANUP_BYPASS_PERMISSIONS` is a list of perms that bypass this safety stripping.
 
 
 ## Evennia 0.9 (2018-2019)
diff --git a/evennia/commands/default/comms.py b/evennia/commands/default/comms.py
index fe56df9334..c7c95cac62 100644
--- a/evennia/commands/default/comms.py
+++ b/evennia/commands/default/comms.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ from evennia.locks.lockhandler import LockException
 from evennia.comms.comms import DefaultChannel
 from evennia.utils import create, logger, utils
 from evennia.utils.logger import tail_log_file
-from evennia.utils.utils import class_from_module
+from evennia.utils.utils import class_from_module, strip_unsafe_input
 from evennia.utils.evmenu import ask_yes_no
 
 COMMAND_DEFAULT_CLASS = class_from_module(settings.COMMAND_DEFAULT_CLASS)
@@ -298,6 +298,9 @@ class CmdChannel(COMMAND_DEFAULT_CLASS):
             caller.msg(f"You are not allowed to send messages to channel {channel}")
             return
 
+        # avoid unsafe tokens in message
+        message = strip_unsafe_input(message, self.session)
+
         channel.msg(message, senders=self.caller, **kwargs)
 
     def get_channel_history(self, channel, start_index=0):
diff --git a/evennia/server/inputfuncs.py b/evennia/server/inputfuncs.py
index 700881e99a..adfbc18216 100644
--- a/evennia/server/inputfuncs.py
+++ b/evennia/server/inputfuncs.py
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ def text(session, *args, **kwargs):
             arguments are ignored.
 
     """
+
     # from evennia.server.profiling.timetrace import timetrace
     # text = timetrace(text, "ServerSession.data_in")
 
diff --git a/evennia/settings_default.py b/evennia/settings_default.py
index 3c37b3f2e0..f22ba2737a 100644
--- a/evennia/settings_default.py
+++ b/evennia/settings_default.py
@@ -722,6 +722,12 @@ CREATION_THROTTLE_LIMIT = 2
 CREATION_THROTTLE_TIMEOUT = 10 * 60
 LOGIN_THROTTLE_LIMIT = 5
 LOGIN_THROTTLE_TIMEOUT = 5 * 60
+# Certain characters, like html tags, line breaks and tabs are stripped
+# from user input for commands using the `evennia.utils.strip_unsafe_input` helper
+# since they can be exploitative. This list defines Account-level permissions
+# (and higher) that bypass this stripping. It is used as a fallback if a
+# specific list of perms are not given to the helper function.
+INPUT_CLEANUP_BYPASS_PERMISSIONS = ['Builder']
 
 
 ######################################################################
diff --git a/evennia/utils/ansi.py b/evennia/utils/ansi.py
index 605a133397..7fc0b34da0 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/ansi.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/ansi.py
@@ -252,6 +252,9 @@ class ANSIParser(object):
     # instance of each
     ansi_escapes = re.compile(r"(%s)" % "|".join(ANSI_ESCAPES), re.DOTALL)
 
+    # tabs/linebreaks |/ and |- should be able to be cleaned
+    unsafe_tokens = re.compile(r"\|\/|\|-", re.DOTALL)
+
     def sub_ansi(self, ansimatch):
         """
         Replacer used by `re.sub` to replace ANSI
@@ -430,6 +433,13 @@ class ANSIParser(object):
         string = self.mxp_url_sub.sub(r"\1", string)  # replace with url verbatim
         return string
 
+    def strip_unsafe_tokens(self, string):
+        """
+        Strip explicitly ansi line breaks and tabs.
+
+        """
+        return self.unsafe_tokens.sub('', string)
+
     def parse_ansi(self, string, strip_ansi=False, xterm256=False, mxp=False):
         """
         Parses a string, subbing color codes according to the stored
@@ -564,6 +574,15 @@ def strip_raw_ansi(string, parser=ANSI_PARSER):
     return parser.strip_raw_codes(string)
 
 
+def strip_unsafe_tokens(string, parser=ANSI_PARSER):
+    """
+    Strip markup that can be used to create visual exploits
+    (notably linebreaks and tags)
+
+    """
+    return parser.strip_unsafe_tokens(string)
+
+
 def raw(string):
     """
     Escapes a string into a form which won't be colorized by the ansi
diff --git a/evennia/utils/utils.py b/evennia/utils/utils.py
index 8c29fef433..53d410098d 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/utils.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/utils.py
@@ -24,12 +24,13 @@ from simpleeval import simple_eval
 from unicodedata import east_asian_width
 from twisted.internet.task import deferLater
 from twisted.internet.defer import returnValue  # noqa - used as import target
+from twisted.internet import threads, reactor
 from os.path import join as osjoin
 from inspect import ismodule, trace, getmembers, getmodule, getmro
 from collections import defaultdict, OrderedDict
-from twisted.internet import threads, reactor
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.utils import timezone
+from django.utils.html import strip_tags
 from django.utils.translation import gettext as _
 from django.apps import apps
 from django.core.validators import validate_email as django_validate_email
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@ ENCODINGS = settings.ENCODINGS
 
 _TASK_HANDLER = None
 _TICKER_HANDLER = None
+_STRIP_UNSAFE_TOKENS = None
 
 _GA = object.__getattribute__
 _SA = object.__setattr__
@@ -2588,3 +2590,41 @@ def safe_convert_to_types(converters, *args, raise_errors=True, **kwargs):
                     if raise_errors:
                         raise
     return args, kwargs
+
+
+def strip_unsafe_input(txt, session=None, bypass_perms=None):
+    """
+    Remove 'unsafe' text codes from text; these are used to elimitate
+    exploits in user-provided data, such as html-tags, line breaks etc.
+
+    Args:
+        txt (str): The text to clean.
+        session (Session, optional): A Session in order to determine if
+            the check should be bypassed by permission (will be checked
+            with the 'perm' lock, taking permission hierarchies into account).
+        bypass_perms (list, optional): Iterable of permission strings
+            to check for bypassing the strip. If not given, use
+            `settings.INPUT_CLEANUP_BYPASS_PERMISSIONS`.
+
+    Returns:
+        str: The cleaned string.
+
+    Notes:
+        The `INPUT_CLEANUP_BYPASS_PERMISSIONS` list defines what account
+        permissions are required to bypass this strip.
+
+    """
+    global _STRIP_UNSAFE_TOKENS
+    if not _STRIP_UNSAFE_TOKENS:
+        from evennia.utils.ansi import strip_unsafe_tokens as _STRIP_UNSAFE_TOKENS
+
+    if session:
+        obj = session.puppet if session.puppet else session.account
+        bypass_perms = bypass_perms or settings.INPUT_CLEANUP_BYPASS_PERMISSIONS
+        if obj.permissions.check(*bypass_perms):
+            return txt
+
+    # remove html codes
+    txt = strip_tags(txt)
+    txt = _STRIP_UNSAFE_TOKENS(txt)
+    return txt