The controversial debate on when to allow kids to play full-contact hockey is once again up for debate after the Greater Toronto Hockey League voted on Saturday to ban body checking for players up to 13 years of age.

It's a debate that has been making the rounds in rinks for years: When are kids ready for contact? Hockey mom, Cherrie McQuigge says she loves the game, but there are too many injuries when kids first start hitting.

"As for lower level hockey, there’s too many hits, too many concussions," she says.

That is just one reason the GTHL is phasing out checking at the “A” level in the minor bantam division – a decision coaches in Barrie support.

"I think there's such a disparity in the size of the kids at that age, some kids have grown, some kids haven't grown, some kids are in the middle of growing,” Patrick Armatage, a head coach in the minor peewee “AA” league. “I think it allows more kids to play competitive hockey."

For now, the Barrie Minor Hockey Association says hitting will be allowed for all levels above peewee.

'Personally I believe the right level to have body checking start is at minor bantam and we will continue to support that and take the lead from Hockey Canada,” says Murray Shanks of the BMHA.

However, there is one place you'll find hockey without checking. The Barrie Knights Hockey League has banned checking at all levels, no matter the age or division, and the people there say the hockey is just as good.

"A lot of people find the game to be more exciting when you take the body checking out, because players now have to rely on their skill, their skating ability,” says BKHL founder Peter Cardo.

The GTHL announced Saturday the "progressive elimination" of body checking, starting with minor bantam for the 2015-16 season.

The GTHL board of directors proposed the rule change -- which was approved by GTHL member clubs and associations with a majority vote of 326 to 195 -- as a result of feedback received from a league-wide survey on the topic of body checking conducted during the 2013-14 season.

The majority of respondents in the survey supported the removal of body checking at the "A" level, which is a competitive league under triple-A and double-A.

The minor bantam level consists of 12 and 13-year-old players. Founded in 1911, the GTHL is the largest minor hockey league in the world with more than 40,000 annual participants in Toronto, North York, Scarborough, Vaughan and Markham, ranging from age 4 to 20.

With files from The Canadian Press.