diff --git a/system/core/Common.php b/system/core/Common.php
index 752a2e7..fd248e9 100644
--- a/system/core/Common.php
+++ b/system/core/Common.php
@@ -690,16 +690,20 @@
 if ( ! function_exists('html_escape'))
 {
 	/**
-	 * Returns HTML escaped variable
+	 * Returns HTML escaped variable.
+	 * $double_encode set to FALSE prevents escaping twice.
 	 *
 	 * @param	mixed
+	 * @param	bool
 	 * @return	mixed
 	 */
-	function html_escape($var)
+	function html_escape($var, $double_encode = TRUE)
 	{
+		$double_encode = (bool) $double_encode;
+
 		return is_array($var)
-			? array_map('html_escape', $var)
-			: htmlspecialchars($var, ENT_QUOTES, config_item('charset'));
+			? ($double_encode === FALSE ? array_map('html_escape', $var, array_fill(0, count($var), FALSE)) : array_map('html_escape', $var))
+			: htmlspecialchars($var, ENT_QUOTES, config_item('charset'), $double_encode);
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst b/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst
index 6619ae9..4ff71a5 100644
--- a/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst
+++ b/user_guide_src/source/changelog.rst
@@ -489,6 +489,7 @@
       -  Removed the third (`$php_error`) argument from function :func:`log_message()`.
       -  Changed internal function ``load_class()`` to accept a constructor parameter instead of (previously unused) class name prefix.
       -  Removed default parameter value of :func:`is_php()`.
+      -  Added a second optional argument ``$double_encode`` to :func:`html_escape()`. When ``$double_encode`` is set to FALSE, escaping twice is prevented.
 
    -  :doc:`Output Library <libraries/output>` changes include: