How to make the update badge on my 'Settings' icon to go away?

I have an iPhone 4, and I don't want to download iOS 7, because I heard it doesn't run well on the 4. The little red dot with the number 1 is showing up on top of the icon, indicating iOS 7 is available.

In Settings, you can customize which apps you want badges to show up on, but there's no option for the 'Settings' app itself.

Is there any way I can make it go away?

I don't believe there's. However if you actually use your iPhone and download apps, your eventually going to have to update because apps will require it.

There's no way to remove it if you are running stock firmware. If you jailbreak your device, there are apps that can remove all update badges from icons. I believe one of them is Springtomize.