In order to disable magic quotes the following solution worked for me on a shared hosting account.  If you are having an issue with Magic Quotes on your shared hosting account please try the following.

In your joomla folder create a file called php.ini

NOTE:
1A: If your site is example www.joomlage.com then the folder to place the file in would be public_html
1B: If your site is installed in a folder example www.joomlage.com/joomla-templates then the folder to place the file in would be public_html/joomla-templates

Add the following lines to the php.ini file
magic_quotes_gpc = Off
magic_quotes_runtime = Off
magic_quotes_sybase = Off
extension=pdo.so
extension=pdo_mysql.so