A method for controlling a screen backlight and a terminal are provided. The method includes the following. When a system wake-up event is detected via system wake-up meta service of the terminal, whether a TouchDown event exists is detected via FingerService of the terminal, where the TouchDown event is generated when a touch operation on a fingerprint sensor is detected. When the TouchDown event is detected via the FingerService, whether the screen backlight is lit up is detected upon elapse of a preset period, where the preset period is longer than duration of fingerprint unlocking processing performed in response to the TouchDown event by the terminal. When it is detected that the screen backlight is lit up, the system wake-up event is discarded.