XMLin question

stryda42 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello Monks,

Just being brief here.

When using XMLin to parse my xml file, I received error, 'parser error : xmlParseStartTag: invalid element name',

which it refers to the less than sign: <. I purposely have the sign for a reason. Making up some xml content:

<sample>
<begin>
You must be < 18.
</begin>
</sample>
[download]

Is there a way to get around this error?

I see XMLout has NoEscape=1, but why not XMLin?

Thanks,
Stryda