diff --git a/src/as-validator-issue-tag.h b/src/as-validator-issue-tag.h
index df3f23993..6c9852a5e 100644
--- a/src/as-validator-issue-tag.h
+++ b/src/as-validator-issue-tag.h
@@ -106,6 +106,11 @@ AsValidatorIssueTag as_validator_issue_tag_list[] =  {
 	  N_("The mentioned tag is empty, which is highly likely not intended as it should have content.")
 	},
 
+	{ "tag-invalid-text-content",
+	  AS_ISSUE_SEVERITY_ERROR,
+	  N_("The mentioned tag has text content, even though it is not allowed to contain text.")
+	},
+
 	{ "cid-is-not-rdns",
 	  AS_ISSUE_SEVERITY_ERROR,
 	  N_("The component ID is required to follow a reverse domain-name scheme for its name. See the AppStream specification for details.")
diff --git a/src/as-validator.c b/src/as-validator.c
index 5b7809ad8..27de13f0b 100644
--- a/src/as-validator.c
+++ b/src/as-validator.c
@@ -644,12 +644,29 @@ as_validate_is_secure_url (const gchar *str)
 	return FALSE;
 }
 
+/**
+ * as_validator_ensure_node_no_text:
+ *
+ * Check that the given node has no text content.
+ **/
+static void
+as_validator_ensure_node_no_text (AsValidator *validator, xmlNode *node)
+{
+	if (node == NULL)
+		return;
+	if (xmlNodeIsText (node) || xmlNodeIsText (node->children))
+		as_validator_add_issue (validator, node,
+					"tag-invalid-text-content",
+					(const gchar*) node->name);
+}
+
 /**
  * as_validator_check_children_quick:
  **/
 static void
 as_validator_check_children_quick (AsValidator *validator, xmlNode *node, const gchar *allowed_tagname, gboolean allow_empty)
 {
+	as_validator_ensure_node_no_text (validator, node);
 	for (xmlNode *iter = node->children; iter != NULL; iter = iter->next) {
 		const gchar *node_name;
 		/* discard spaces */
@@ -1350,6 +1367,7 @@ as_validator_check_relations (AsValidator *validator,
 			      GHashTable *known_entries,
 			      AsRelationKind kind)
 {
+	as_validator_ensure_node_no_text (validator, node);
 	for (xmlNode *iter = node->children; iter != NULL; iter = iter->next) {
 		const gchar *node_name;
 		const gchar *rel_dupe_type = NULL;