The invention discloses a method for controlling terminal equipment to switch working states and the terminal equipment. The method comprises steps as follows: an unlocking instruction for the terminal equipment in a screen locking state is detected, a camera of the terminal equipment is started according to the unlocking instruction, a human face information acquisition interface is output, human face features and continuous winking times which are displayed on the human face information acquisition interface and collected by the camera are captured, and whether the face features are matched with preset face features is recognized; when the face features are matched with the preset face features, a first preset work state corresponding to the continuous winking times is determined, the terminal equipment is unlocked, and an operation interface corresponding to the first preset work state is output. With the implementation of the embodiment, the privacy safety of the terminal equipment can be improved.