Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Good question, although not really a "real estate and real property" question --- all the items mentioned are "personal property" rather than "real property."

I would summarize by saying that minors have the right to OWN personal property, but that the minor's parents have such a strong legal right to act in their capacity as parents that they are, in effect, virtually in control of everything the minor owns. For example, if the parents decide that their child, age 17-1/2, is better off without an mp3 player, the law would seem to allow them to enforce this belief by selling the "child's" player and applying the proceeds to the child's welfare as seen by the parents. On the other hand, if the child has vast real-estate or stock holdings received by gift or inheritance, the law is pretty clear that the parents must observe the separate ownership of the child, and may not liquidate them to support the parents' gambling habits.

In between, there seems to be a huge "gray area" where there is probably some case law that should guide us, but as a real-estate lawyer I am not familiar with it, and thus I'd suggest re-asking this interesting question under a heading where it would be referred to LawGuru attorneys who practice in the area of law involved, which I think should be "family law" or a related heading.