Headaches on Homework

I remember when I was going to middle/high school, when the internet was in its infancy, having to come home everyday and take 1-2 hours out of my afternoon to complete various homework assignments.  Sometimes I would have a couple of chapters to read between my History and English classes and nothing else, sometimes I spent an hour and a half on my math.  Each day it varied as to the time spent on homework for any one of my subjects, but inevitably I would have to invest a decent chunk of my "free time" after school to complete this work.  In recent talks with some current teachers it seems that times have changed.  "Homework," I've been told by several instructors, "is nearly impossible to get the kids to do when you assign it anymore."  They've gone on to explain that many of the students are just so involved with extracurricular activities or active lifestyles that they, the students, tend to "slack off" on their assigned homework.  Still, others just fail to complete assigned homework out of lack of supervision to keep them on task (i.e. a teacher/parent checking in on them making sure they have done the work).   In some cases, entire school policy has been re-structured asking teachers not to assign more than 15 minutes worth of out-of-the-classroom work each day for their students.  The thought behind this action is that if every class gives no more than 15 minutes worth of work, no student should fail in completing all the tasks in a reasonable amount of time.  Taking these ideas and other insights you may have into the homework dilemma, I would like to ask you what you think about homework.  Is homework necessary?  Should there be a designated maximum time allowance per subject?  What about fields like math, and even English?  Are kids these days really that involved?   Where do you stand on homework?  Please feel free to respond to any and/or all of the above.