function safetags ($text) {

#This function uses htmlentities to disble markup, then converts those tags that are allowed and properly formatted back into enabled markup.

	$loner_tags=array('br', 'hl', 'img', 'p' ); #These are tags that can left unclosed.  But it's OK if they are closed.
	$closed_tags=array('a', 'b', 'center', 'div', 'left', 'li', 'right', 'span', 'ul' ); #These are the ones that have to be closed.

	$i=0;
	$pattern=array();
	$replace=array();

#convert the entire text to html entities.  This takes all tags and quotes and converts them to harmless strings.
	$text=htmlentities($text);

#for all allowed tags, if they have closing tags then enable them.
	$all_tags=array_merge($loner_tags, $closed_tags);	

	foreach($all_tags as $tag) {
		$pattern[]='/(?<![\\\\])\&lt;' . $tag . '((?<=' . $tag . ')\s+.*?)*(?<![\\\\])\&gt;(.*?)(?<![\\\\])\&lt;\/' . $tag . '(?<![\\\\])\&gt;/si';
		$replace[]='<' . $tag . '\1>\2</' . $tag . '>';
	}

#Enable those tags that don't have closing tags and are allowed without them.  
	foreach($loner_tags as $tag) {
		$pattern[]='/(?<![\\\\])\&lt;' . $tag . '((?<=' . $tag . ')\s+.*?)*\/?(?<![\\\\])\&gt;/si';
		$replace[]='<' . $tag . '\1/>';
	}

#Within each properly converted tag, convert the properly quoted attributes.
	$pattern[]='/<([^<>]*?)\&quot;(.*?)\&quot;([^<>]*?)>/';
	$replace[]='<\1 "\2" \3>';
	
	$pattern[]='/<([^<>]*?)\&apos;(.*?)\&apos;([^<>]*?)>/';
	$replace[]='<\1 "\2" \3>';

#Here's where the work gets done

	for($i=0;$i<count($pattern);$i++) {
		while(preg_match($pattern[$i], $text, $matches) ) {
			$text=preg_replace($pattern[$i], $replace[$i], $text);
		}
	}

	return $text;
}