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That is a reasonable argument, and it has almost nothing to do with evaluating the indulgence of porn,* but rather with assessing the real-world production of porn. My response would be that measures should be taken to 'clean up' the porn industry as much as possible. It wouldn't be that difficult to do (of course you could not eliminate all such problems), but isn't done because society wants to keep it in the shadows. In order to directly confront such issues, you must bring them into the light of day, and 'we' don't want to do that. That was clearly the case last year when a handful of adult performers contracted HIV. There was a brief flurry of talk about regulation, then it all vanished into the shadows again with hardly any notice.

There is another argument as well along the lines of: were it not for broken girls and dissolute men porn would not get made. Perhaps that is true to some extent (of the 'hard-core' stuff) but that's neither here nor there. The underlying topics you raise should be confronted for what they are, and porn can then become whatever it will be to whatever extent they are resolved.

A lot of this ties back into what I said earlier about our unhealthy social regard of sexuality, in tandem with some unrelated or indirectly related social ills. The basic point that I am making is that graphic erotic imagery is not the problem; other social ills that intersect with that are the problem. And I don't condemn sex for what it is, nor do I classify it in some vague, shady sphere apart from the rest of human life. I think most of the problems with sex arise from that type of attitude.

* Except in the most tangential sense of: 'if you have sympathy for the participants, you won't patronize the product' or something along those lines. Arguable in itself.

The underlying topics you raise should be confronted for what they are, and porn can then become whatever it will be to whatever extent they are resolved.

My view is, they go hand and hand. The issues associated with production are a direct consequence of the product being produced. In my estimation, the industry can't be "cleaned up" in any substantial way because of the types of people who choose to be involved with pornography. Porn will always need damaged girls and heartless bastards willing to exploit them for an easy buck... and everybody's going to need their coke. That stuff can't be changed or regulated. It's the nature of the industry.