translating special characters from form elements

im using the cgi-module, cgi.pm
for some file-uploading purposes.
i also have some html form elements like a textfield:

$my_n_1 = $q->param("textfield");

in this formfield there can be any character.
usually i translate some of these characters with the wellknown routine
like this:

sub readform{
 read(STDIN, $buffer, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});
 @pairs = split(/&/, $buffer);
 foreach $pair (@pairs) {
   ($name, $value) = split(/=/, $pair);
   $value =~ s/%([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;
   $value =~ tr/+/ /;
   $value =~ s/</&lt;/g;
   $value =~ s/>/&gt;/g;
   $FORM{$name} = $value;
 }
}
__END__


i want to apply a similar routine to lines like the
$my_n_1 = $q->param("textfield");

so my question is: is there a built-in way to do it via cgi.pm or do i
need to make my own function?

thanks
allan