Ubuntu 26.04: Enable Screen Time Limits in GNOME
Updated
A quick tutorial on setting up screen time limits in Ubuntu 26.04 using GNOME
Make sure your system is up to date and that you have administrator access on your machine.
Method 1: Digital Wellbeing Panel
First, let me show you how to set personal limits using the built-in Digital Wellbeing panel.
- Open your Settings by pressing super, typing settings, and hitting enter.
- Scroll down the left sidebar and select Digital Wellbeing.
- Toggle on the Screen Time Limits switch, set your maximum daily usage allowance, and choose whether you want soft notifications or automatic lockouts when your time expires.
Method 2: Child Account Limits
If you need strict parental controls for a child account, we can use Malcontent instead. Open your terminal by pressing ctrl + alt + t and run this command:
sudo apt install malcontent-gui
Type your administrator password when prompted and press enter. Keep in mind that no characters or asterisks will display on your screen while typing your password, which is normal Linux security behavior. Give the installer a few seconds to fetch and configure the required packages.
Once the installation finishes, open Parental Controls from your application grid or run malcontent-control in the terminal. Select the child account from the list, toggle on Screen Time Limits, and set your permitted operating hours for both weekdays and weekends. Click Apply to save the changes.
To run a quick test, log out of your main session, log into the child account, and verify that the remaining time indicator displays in the top status bar.
Make sure the child account is set as a Standard account rather than an Administrator, otherwise they can easily bypass these restrictions.
