diff --git a/core/src/processing/data/XML.java b/core/src/processing/data/XML.java
index f18724474..40ca83a7c 100644
--- a/core/src/processing/data/XML.java
+++ b/core/src/processing/data/XML.java
@@ -355,6 +355,9 @@ public class XML implements Serializable {
    * @return the first matching element
    */
   public XML getChild(String name) {
+    if (name.length() > 0 && name.charAt(0) == '/') {
+      throw new IllegalArgumentException("getChild() should not begin with a slash");
+    }
     if (name.indexOf('/') != -1) {
       return getChildRecursive(PApplet.split(name, '/'), 0);
     }
@@ -413,6 +416,9 @@ public class XML implements Serializable {
    * @author processing.org
    */
   public XML[] getChildren(String name) {
+    if (name.length() > 0 && name.charAt(0) == '/') {
+      throw new IllegalArgumentException("getChildren() should not begin with a slash");
+    }
     if (name.indexOf('/') != -1) {
       return getChildrenRecursive(PApplet.split(name, '/'), 0);
     }
diff --git a/core/todo.txt b/core/todo.txt
index 6d29a101d..b7a0089b0 100644
--- a/core/todo.txt
+++ b/core/todo.txt
@@ -155,8 +155,7 @@ o   2) we keep getFloat() like it is, and add getFloatContent(), etc.
 o   3) we deprecate our nice short getFloat/getInt/etc and go with 
 o      getXxxxAttribute() and getXxxxContent() methods.
 X   not gonna do getFloatContent() since it's not really any shorter
-
-_ beginning slash in getChild() threw an NPE
+X beginning slash in getChild() threw an NPE
 
 async requests
 Request r = createRequest("http://p5.org/feed/13134.jpg");