About the model class

[eluser]danmontgomery[/eluser]
If you're using active record, values are escaped... This is covered in the user guide.

http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-gui...tml#insert

Note: All values are escaped automatically producing safer queries.

http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-gui...urity.html
http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-gui...input.html

Checking unique values should still be done in form_validation.

http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-gui...#callbacks