One of the sites that I support used to have the AIM box displayed.
(They eventually moved to a different support method)
My solution to resolve the SSL problem...
Use cURL to display the correct image using https when needed.
I offered my code to the author of the contribution, I guess it was not needed.
If this is something that you could use, PM me and I'll send you a link to my test site.
If you like it and consider it useful, I'll clean it up and submit it as a contribution.
Robert
(Moderators: please note that this is not a solicitation for work.)