What are the potential pitfalls of using image links in PHP for displaying profiles?

Potential pitfalls of using image links in PHP for displaying profiles include security vulnerabilities such as allowing for malicious code injection through image URLs, slower loading times due to external requests for images, and broken links if the image source is changed or removed. To mitigate these risks, it is recommended to store images locally and reference them using relative paths within the server directory.

// Example of storing images locally and referencing them using relative paths
$imagePath = "profile_images/";
$imageName = "profile1.jpg";
echo "<img src='$imagePath$imageName' alt='Profile Image'>";