diff --git a/lib/kses.php b/lib/kses.php
index 3c04e6626a0..578aadfcd05 100644
--- a/lib/kses.php
+++ b/lib/kses.php
@@ -383,7 +383,7 @@ function kses_bad_protocol($string, $allowed_protocols)
 ###############################################################################
 {
   $string = kses_no_null($string);
-  $string = preg_replace('/\xad+/', '', $string); # deals with Opera "feature"
+  $string = preg_replace('/([^\xc3-\xcf])\xad+/', '\\1', $string); # deals with Opera "feature" -- moodle utf8 fix 
   $string2 = $string.'a';
 
   while ($string != $string2)