What are the potential challenges for beginners in PHP when attempting to create a complex platform like a social network?

One potential challenge for beginners in PHP when creating a complex platform like a social network is handling user authentication and authorization securely. It is crucial to properly validate user input, sanitize data to prevent SQL injection attacks, and implement secure password hashing techniques to protect user credentials.

// Sample code for securely hashing passwords using PHP's password_hash function
$password = "user_password";
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);