diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index c6d07459bc..9ffa791fee 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 Parser:
 
 - add first rough performance testing script (#3280) [Austin Schick][]
+- add `throwUnescapedHTML` to warn against potential HTML injection [Josh Goebel][]
 - expose `regex` helper functions via `hljs` injection [Josh Goebel][]
   - concat
   - lookahead
diff --git a/docs/api.rst b/docs/api.rst
index a5d7880fe9..f4301a2889 100644
--- a/docs/api.rst
+++ b/docs/api.rst
@@ -89,6 +89,9 @@ Configures global options:
 * ``languageDetectRe``: a regex to configure how CSS class names map to language (allows class names like say `color-as-php` vs the default of `language-php`, etc.)
 * ``noHighlightRe``: a regex to configure which CSS classes are to be skipped completely.
 * ``cssSelector``: a CSS selector to configure which elements are affected by ``hljs.highlightAll``. Defaults to ``'pre code'``.
+* ``ignoreUnescapedHTML``: do not log warnings to console about unescaped HTML in code blocks
+* ``throwUnescapedHTML``: throw a ``HTMLInjectionError`` when ``highlightElement`` is asked to highlight content that includes unescaped HTML
+
 
 Accepts an object representing options with the values to updated. Other options don't change
 ::
diff --git a/src/highlight.js b/src/highlight.js
index 5049329b48..6f546e6ccc 100644
--- a/src/highlight.js
+++ b/src/highlight.js
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import * as MODES from './lib/modes.js';
 import { compileLanguage } from './lib/mode_compiler.js';
 import * as packageJSON from '../package.json';
 import * as logger from "./lib/logger.js";
+import HTMLInjectionError from "./lib/html_injection_error.js";
 
 /**
 @typedef {import('highlight.js').Mode} Mode
@@ -66,6 +67,7 @@ const HLJS = function(hljs) {
   /** @type HLJSOptions */
   let options = {
     ignoreUnescapedHTML: false,
+    throwUnescapedHTML: false,
     noHighlightRe: /^(no-?highlight)$/i,
     languageDetectRe: /\blang(?:uage)?-([\w-]+)\b/i,
     classPrefix: 'hljs-',
@@ -724,11 +726,24 @@ const HLJS = function(hljs) {
     fire("before:highlightElement",
       { el: element, language: language });
 
-    // we should be all text, no child nodes
-    if (!options.ignoreUnescapedHTML && element.children.length > 0) {
-      console.warn("One of your code blocks includes unescaped HTML. This is a potentially serious security risk.");
-      console.warn("https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js/issues/2886");
-      console.warn(element);
+    // we should be all text, no child nodes (unescaped HTML) - this is possibly
+    // an HTML injection attack - it's likely too late if this is already in
+    // production (the code has likely already done its damage by the time
+    // we're seeing it)... but we yell loudly about this so that hopefully it's
+    // more likely to be caught in development before making it to production
+    if (element.children.length > 0) {
+      if (!options.ignoreUnescapedHTML) {
+        console.warn("One of your code blocks includes unescaped HTML. This is a potentially serious security risk.");
+        console.warn("https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js/issues/2886");
+        console.warn(element);
+      }
+      if (options.throwUnescapedHTML) {
+        const err = new HTMLInjectionError(
+          "One of your code blocks includes unescaped HTML.",
+          element.innerHTML
+        );
+        throw err;
+      }
     }
 
     node = element;
diff --git a/src/lib/html_injection_error.js b/src/lib/html_injection_error.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..332a0c13bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/html_injection_error.js
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+export default class HTMLInjectionError extends Error {
+  constructor(reason, html) {
+    super(reason);
+    this.name = "HTMLInjectionError";
+    this.html = html;
+  }
+}
diff --git a/types/index.d.ts b/types/index.d.ts
index c7f3eb5ed4..dae5dff32e 100644
--- a/types/index.d.ts
+++ b/types/index.d.ts
@@ -134,6 +134,7 @@ declare module 'highlight.js' {
         languages?: string[]
         __emitter: EmitterConstructor
         ignoreUnescapedHTML?: boolean
+        throwUnescapedHTML?: boolean
     }
 
     export interface CallbackResponse {