A mobile terminal including a terminal body; a touch screen disposed on a front surface of the terminal body, and configured to sense a touch applied to the touch screen; and a controller configured to activate the touch screen in which illumination is turned on, display screen information on the activated touch screen, deactivate the touch screen upon no touch being performed on the touch screen for a predetermined time period associated with an automatic lock function, and in response to a predetermined touch input being sensed by the touch screen within a reference time period before or after the touch screen is deactivated, disable the automatic lock function or reconfigure the predetermined time period.