Joram Muzones is swearing off hot chocolate this winter.

The fourth-year Ryerson nursing student’s last encounter with the beverage was scarring — she saw a friend vomit all over a table and a tea house threatened to sue her.

Muzones was at Destiny Tea Café, a popular hang-out for Asian youth in east-end Toronto, one Sunday night last month when she saw two dead cockroaches floating in her hot chocolate. Shortly after the incident, Muzones created a Facebook group to notify the public about her experience.

But some legal experts say posting online content can land students in a world of trouble if they aren’t cautious.

“The bottom line is if you’re telling the truth, you don’t have to worry about anything,” said Avner Levin, chair of Ryerson business and law.

The page, called “Cockroach special at Destiny Tea and Café Lounge” featured uploaded cellphone pictures of the roach-flavoured drink. But word travelled so quickly that Destiny called Muzones the day the group was created and demanded she take it down within 48 hours or the tea house would take legal action.

Muzones then consulted Ryerson Students’ Union lawyer, William Reid, and decided she had the right to keep the group up.

“The main thing to keep in mind is that you can express facts you can prove and things that you may just feel are opinions,” he said, adding Muzones believed her witnesses and cellphone photos could justify the Facebook group. 

The café can’t say for certain where the cockroaches came from, but the staff is moving on, Destiny spokesperson Lena Wong said, adding the health inspector said the insects might have been from outside packages delivered to the restaurant.

Last month, Toronto Public Health inspected Destiny Tea Café following Muzones’ cockroach incident. The restaurant received a pass.

“It’s not a big concern to us if (Muzones) takes the (group) down or not . . . It’s free speech. People can say what they want,” Wong said on Sunday.

Reid said technology has crept into his practice with the evolution of Facebook and YouTube. The RSU lawyer has dealt with students in trouble for a range of online issues — from Internet defamation to the unauthorized use of a photograph.

Last year, computer engineering student Chris Avenir faced charges for academic misconduct after he helped run a Facebook chemistry study group where 146 students swapped homework tips. A university faculty appeal hearing later spared Avenir from expulsion, but he had a disciplinary note on his transcript and received zero on one of his assignments.

In her case, Muzones said her Facebook group isn’t about self-interest. “It (was about) public health,” she said. “What if the next person . . . gets sick? I’d feel guilty about it.”

But students who create Facebook groups need to be sure everything they post is true, Muzones said.

“By making this group I put myself out there to be criticized. If you want to take that step just make sure it’s really important . . . because Facebook or YouTube can get you in a lot of trouble and a lot of attention, from what I found out.”

On YouTube, for example, students can unknowingly break copyright laws.

Dan Wrobel, a fourth-year aerospace engineering student, has posted game videos, which are video game clips accompanied by music, on YouTube.

“I don’t think students think about copyright issues,” Wrobel said.

But creating user-generated content by combining already existing media products is a common pitfall among young people, said Levin. “The legal perspective is . . .  it’s an infringement and they might have to pay for damages.”

YouTube, however, is rarely asked by companies to remove these videos because it promotes their game or product, Levin said.

“Anything, as technology evolves, is beneficial for communication,” Reid said. “But anything . . . can be used for a negative purpose and the potential for that lies in all the technology that we invent.”