diff --git a/lib/validate_url.rb b/lib/validate_url.rb
index d77272c..1fc81c3 100644
--- a/lib/validate_url.rb
+++ b/lib/validate_url.rb
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ def filtered_options(value)
       end
 
       def validate_url(record, attribute, value, schemes)
-        uri = URI.parse(value)
+        uri = URI.parse(URI::Parser.new.escape(value)
         host = uri && uri.host
         scheme = uri && uri.scheme