diff --git a/app/models/captioned_image.rb b/app/models/captioned_image.rb
index 5b9f77e..ecfb950 100644
--- a/app/models/captioned_image.rb
+++ b/app/models/captioned_image.rb
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ class CaptionedImage < ActiveRecord::Base
   attr_accessible :source_image_id, :text_bottom, :text_top, :title
   belongs_to :source_image
   delegate :adoption_info_url, to: :source_image
+  validates :title, :text_top, :text_bottom, allow_blank: true, format: {
+    with: %r{\A[A-Za-z0-9 _-?!]\Z},
+    message: 'Only letters, numbers, underscores, hyphens, question marks, and exclamation marks are allowed.'
+  }
 
   def image_url
     SimpleMemeCaptainClient.captioned_image_url(u: source_image.url,