Incorrect URL when displaying badges (files set to private)

Am trying to get the badges to show in the profile user list. It's a PHP based theme rather than PHPTemplate. I have the user object already. So - I added

$res .= user_badges_for_uid($user->uid);

This creates the HTML

<div class='user_badges'><img src="//srv/www/intern.ochs.no/htdocs/files/badges/small_avatar.gif" alt="badgename" title="badgename" width="32" height="32" /></div>

Now - the drupal install is set to have download method: private - so the URL

/system/files/badges/small_avatar.gif

is the correct place to go looking.

Does user_badges support the download method: private setting?