What potential pitfalls should beginners be aware of when creating a slideshow with JavaScript in PHP?

One potential pitfall for beginners when creating a slideshow with JavaScript in PHP is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting attacks. To mitigate this risk, it's important to sanitize any user-generated content before displaying it in the slideshow.

<?php
// Sanitize user input before using it in JavaScript
$user_input = "<script>alert('XSS attack!');</script>";
$sanitized_input = htmlspecialchars($user_input, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');

echo "<script>document.getElementById('slideshow').innerHTML = '$sanitized_input';</script>";
?>